LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 
HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


FOUR 
GREAT    AMERICANS 

GEORGE    WASHINGTON 
BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN 

DANIEL   WEBSTER 
ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

A  Book  for  Young  Americans 
BY  JAMES   BALDWIN 


AMERICAN    BOOK    COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI  CHICAGO 


COPYRIGHT,  1896,  1897,  BY 
WERNER  SCHOOL  BOOK  COMPANY 


FOUR   GREAT   AMERICANS 
E.    P.    26 


CONTENTS 

THE    STORY   OF   GEORGE    WASHINGTON 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     WHEN  WASHINGTON  WAS  A  BOY 9 

II.    His  HOMES 12 

III.  His  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOOLMASTERS       .        .        .        .14 

IV.  GOING  TO  SEA        ....  18 
V.    THE  YOUNG  SURVEYOR 22 

VI.     THE  OHIO  COUNTRY 29 

VII.    A  CHANGE  OF  CIRCUMSTANCES 32 

VIII.    A  PERILOUS  JOURNEY 35 

IX.     His  FIRST  BATTLE 38 

X.    THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR 40 

XI.      THE   MUTTER1NGS   OF   THE   STORM  .            .            ...  46 

XII.    THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  WAR 51 

XIII.  INDEPENDENCE        .        .        .        ....        .        •  54 

XIV.  THE  FIRST  PRESIDENT 58 

XV.    "FIRST  IN  WAR,  FIRST  IN  PEACE"       ....  62 

3 


4  CONTENTS 

THE    STORY    OF   BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  THE  WHISTLE 69 

II.  SCHOOLDAYS 72 

III.  THE  BOYS  AND  THE  WHARF 75 

IV.  CHOOSING  A  TRADE 77 

V.  How  FRANKLIN  EDUCATED  HIMSELF     ....  79 

VI.  FAREWELL  TO  BOSTON 83 

VII.  THE  FIRST  DAY  IN  PHILADELPHIA  85 

VIII.  GOVERNOR  WILLIAM  KEITH 89 

IX.  THE  RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA 93 

X.  THE  FIRST  VISIT  TO  ENGLAND 96 

XI.  A  LEADING  MAN  IN  PHILADELPHIA       ....  99 

XII.  FRANKLIN'S  RULES  OF  LIFE 101 

XIII.  FRANKLIN'S  SERVICES  TO  THE  COLONIES       .        .        .104 

XIV.  FRANKLIN'S  WONDERFUL  KITE 108 

XV.  THE  LAST  YEARS   . 114 


CONTENTS  5 

THE    STORY    OF   DANIEL   WEBSTER 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     CAPTAIN  WEBSTER 121 

II.     THE  YOUNGEST  , SON 124 

III.  EZEKIEL   AND   DANIEL 128 

IV.  PLANS  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

V.     AT  EXETER  ACADEMY 

VI.  GETTING  READY  FOR  COLLEGE      .        . 

VII.  AT  DARTMOUTH  COLLEGE 

VIII.  How  DANIEL  TAUGHT  SCHOOL 

IX.  DANIEL  GOES  TO  BOSTON  '  .        ... 

X.  LAWYER  AND  CONGRESSMAN  .        .        . 

XI.  THE  DARTMOUTH  COLLEGE  CASE  .        .        . 

XII.  WEBSTER'S  GREAT  ORATIONS         .        .        .        .        . 

XIII.  MR.  WEBSTER  IN  THE  SENATE 

XIV.  MR.  WEBSTER  IN  PRIVATE  LIFE 

XV.  THE  LAST  YEARS    . 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    THE  KENTUCKY  HOME 179 

II.  WORK  AND  SORROW       .        .        .        .        .        .        .     184 

III.  THE  NEW  MOTHER 191 

IV.  SCHOOL  AND  BOOKS 194 

V.     LIFE  IN  THE  BACKWOODS 198 

VI.     THE  BOATMAN        .        . 201 

VII.     THE  FIRST  YEARS  IN  ILLINOIS 204 

VIII.     THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR 207 

IX.  IN  THE  LEGISLATURE      .        .        .        .        .        .        .210 

X.     POLITICS  AND  MARRIAGE 214 

XI.  CONGRESSMAN  AND  LAWYER  .        .        .        .        .        .218 

XII.     THE  QUESTION  OF  SLAVERY 221 

XIII.  LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS 225 

XIV.  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES       .        .        .  229 
XV.     THE  END  OF  A  GREAT  LIFE 233 


THE    STORY    OF 
GEORGE    WASHINGTON 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

I. — WHEN  WASHINGTON  WAS  A  BOY 

When  George  Washington  was  a  boy  there 
was  no  United  States.  The  land  was  here,  just 
as  it  is  now,  stretching  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
to  the  Pacific ;  but  nearly  all  of  it  was  wild  and 
unknown. 

Between  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  the  Allegheny 
Mountains  there  were  thirteen  colonies,  or  great 
settlements.  The  most  of  the  people  who  lived 
in  these  colonies  were  English  people,  or  the  chil- 
dren of  English  people  ;  and  so  the  King  of  Eng- 
land made  their  laws  and  appointed  their 
governors. 

The  newest  of  the  colonies  was  Georgia,  which 
was  settled  the  year  after  George  Washington 
was  born. 

The  oldest  colony  was  Virginia,  which  had 
been  settled  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  years. 

9 


10          THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE   WASHINGTON 

It  was  also  the  richest  colony,  and  more  people 
were  living  in  it  than  in  any  other. 

There  were  only  two  or  three  towns  in  Virginia 
at  that  time,  and  they  were  quite  small. 

Most  of  the  people  lived  on  farms  or  on  big 
plantations,  where  they  raised  whatever  they 
needed  to  eat.  They  also  raised  tobacco,  which 
they  sent  to  England  to  be  sold. 

The  farms,  or  plantations,  were  often  far  apart, 
with  stretches  of  thick  woods  between  them. 
Nearly  every  one  was  close  to  a  river,  or  some 
other  large  body  of  water ;  for  there  are  many 
rivers  in  Virginia. 

There  were  no  roads,  such  as  we  have  now- 
adays, but  only  paths  through  the  woods.  When 
people  wanted  to  travel  from  place  to  place,  they 
had  to  go  on  foot,  or  on  horseback,  or  in  small 
boats. 

A  few  of  the  rich  men  who  lived  on  the  big 
plantations  had  coaches ;  and  now  and  then  they 
would  drive  out  in  grand  style  behind  four  or  six 
horses,  with  a  fine  array  of  servants  and  outriders 
following  them.  But  they  could  not  drive  far 
where  there  were  no  roads,  and  we  can  hardly 


WHEN  WASHINGTON  WAS  A  BOY  11 

understand  how  they  could  get  any  pleasure 
out  of  it. 

Nearly  all  the  work  on  the  plantations  was 
done  by  slaves.  Ships  had  been  bringing  negroes 
from  Africa  for  more  than  a  hundred  years,  and 
now  nearly  half  the  people  in  Virginia  were  blacks. 

Very  often,  also,  poor  white  men  from  Eng- 
land were  sold  as  slaves  for  a  few  years  in  order 
to  pay  for  their  passage  across  the  ocean.  When 
their  freedom  was  given  to  them  they  continued 
to  work  at  whatever  they  could  find  to  do ;  or 
they  cleared  small  farms  in  the  woods  for  them- 
selves, or  went  farther  to  the  west  and  became 
woodsmen  and  hunters. 

There  was  but  very  little  money  in  Virginia  at 
that  time,  and,  indeed,  there  was  not  much  use 
for  it.  For  what  could  be  done  with  money 
where  there  were  no  shops  worth  speaking  of, 
and  no  stores,  and  nothing  to  buy  ? 

The  common  people  raised  flax  and  wool,  and 
wove  their  own  cloth ;  and  they  made  their  own 
tools  and  furniture.  The  rich  people  did  the 
same  ;  but  for  their  better  or  finer  goods  they 
sent  to  England. 


12          THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

For  you  must  know  that  in  all  this  country 
there  were  no  great  mills  for  spinning  and  weav- 
ing as  there  are  now ;  there  were  no  factories 
of  any  kind ;  there  were  no  foundries  where  iron 
could  be  melted  and  shaped  into  all  kinds  of 
useful  and  beautiful  things. 

When  George  Washington  was  a  boy  the  world 
was  not  much  like  it  is  now. 

II.  —  His  HOMES 

George  Washington's  father  owned  a  large  plan- 
tation on  the  western  shore  of  the  Potomac  River. 
George's  great-grandfather,  John  Washington, 
had  settled  upon  it  nearly  eighty  years  before, 
and  there  the  family  had  dwelt  ever  since. 

This  plantation  was  in  Westmoreland  county, 
not  quite  forty  miles  above  the  place  where  the 
Potomac  flows  into  Chesapeake  Bay.  By  looking 
at  your  map  of  Virginia,  you  will  see  that  the 
river  is  very  broad  there. 

On  one  side  of  the  plantation,  and  flowing 
through  it,  there  was  a  creek,  called  Bridge's 
Creek ;  and  for  this  reason  the  place  was  known 
as  the  Bridge's  Creek  Plantation. 


HIS  HOMES  13 

It  was  here,  on  the  22d  of  February,  1732,  that 
George  Washington  was  born. 

Although  his  father  was  a  rich  man,  the  house 
in  which  he  lived  was  neither  very  large  nor 
very  fine  —  at  least  it  would  not  be  thought 
so  now. 

It  was  a  square,  wooden  building,  with  four 
rooms  on  the  ground  floor  and  an  attic  above. 

The  eaves  were  low,  and  the  roof  was  long  and 
sloping.  At  each  end  of  the  house  there  was  a 
huge  chimney ;  and  inside  were  big  fireplaces, 
one  foj  the  kitchen  and  one  for  the  "great  room" 
where  visitors  were  received. 

But  George  did  not  live  long  in  this  house. 
When  he  was  about  three  years  old  his  father  re- 
moved to  another  plantation  which  he  owned, 
near  Hunting  Creek,  several  miles  farther  up  the 
river.  This  new  plantation  was  at  first  known  as 
the  Washington  Plantation,  but  it  is  now  called 
Mount  Vernon. 

Four  years  after  this  the  house  of  the  Washing- 
tons  was  burned  down.  But  Mr.  Washington 
had  still  other  lands  on  the  Rappahannock  River. 
He  had  also  an  interest  in  some  iron  mines  that 


14          THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

were  being  opened  there.  And  so  to  this  place 
the  family  was  now  taken. 

The  house  by  the  Rappahannock  was  very 
much  like  the  one  at  Bridge's  Creek.  It  stood  on 
high  ground,  overlooking  the  river  and  some  low 
meadows ;  and  on  the  other  side  of  the  river  was 
the  village  of  Fredericksburg,  which  at  that  time 
was  a  very  small  village,  indeed. 

George  was  now  about  seven  years  old. 

III.  —  His  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOOLMASTERS 

There  were  no  good  schools  in  Virginia  at  that 
time.  In  fact,  the  people  did  not  care  much  about 
learning. 

There  were  few  educated  men  besides  the  par- 
sons, and  even  some  of  the  parsons  were  very 
ignorant. 

It  was  the  custom  of  some  of  the  richest  fam- 
ilies to  send  their  eldest  sons  to  England  to  the 
great  schools  there.  But  it  is  doubtful  if  these 
young  men  learned  much  about  books. 

They  spent  a  winter  or  two  in  the  gay  society 
of  London,  and  were  taught  the  manners  of  gen- 
tlemen —  and  that  was  about  all. 


HIS   SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOOLMASTERS  15 

George  Washington's  father,  when  a  young 
man,  had  spent  some  time  at  Appleby  School  in 
England,  and  George's  half-brothers,  Lawrence 
and  Augustine,  who  were  several  years  older  than 
he,  had  been  sent  to  the  same  school. 

But  book-learning  was  not  thought  to  be  of 
much  use.  To  know  how  to  manage  the  busi- 
ness of  a  plantation,  to  be  polite  to  one's  equals, 
to  be  a  leader  in  the  affairs  of  the  colony  —  this 
was  thought  to  be  the  best  education. 

And  so,  for  most  of  the  young  men,  it  was 
enough  if  they  could  read  and  write  a  little  and 
keep  a  few  simple  accounts.  As  for  the  girls,  the 
parson  might  give  them  a  few  lessons  now  and 
then ;  and  if  they  learned  good  manners  and 
could  write  letters  to  their  friends,  what  more 
could  they  need  ? 

George  Washington's  first  teacher  was  a  poor 
sexton,  whose  name  was  Mr.  Hobby.  There  is  a 
story  that  he  had  been  too  poor  to  pay  his  passage 
from  England,  and  that  he  had,  therefore,  been 
sold  to  Mr.  Washington  as  a  slave  for  a  short 
time ;  but  how  true  this  is,  I  cannot  say. 

From    Mr.    Hobby,    George    learned    to    spell 


1 6          THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

easy  words,  and  perhaps  to  write  a  little  ;  but, 
although  he  afterward  became  a  very  careful 
and  good  penman,  he  was  a  poor  speller  as  long 
as  he  lived. 

When  George  was  about  eleven  years  old  his 
father  died.  We  do  not  know  what  his  father's 
intentions  had  been  regarding  him.  But  pos- 
sibly, if  he  had  lived,  he  would  have  given 
George  the  best  education  that  his  means  would 
afford. 

But  now  everything  was  changed.  The  plan- 
tation at  Hunting  Creek,  and,  indeed,  almost  all 
the  rest  of  Mr.  Washington's  great  estate,  became 
the  property  of  the  eldest  son,  Lawrence. 

George  was  sent  to  Bridge's  Creek  to  live  for  a 
while  with  his  brother  Augustine,  who  now 
owned  the  old  home  plantation  there.  The 
mother  and  the  younger  children  remained  on 
the  Rappahannock  farm. 

While  at  Bridge's  Creek,  George  was  sent  to 
school  to  a  Mr.  Williams,  who  had  lately  come 
from  England. 

There  are  still  to  be  seen  some  exercises  which 
the  lad  wrote  at  that  time.  There  is  also  a  little 


HIS  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOOLMASTERS  17 

book,  called  The  Young  Mans  Companion,  from 
which  he  copied,  with  great  care,  a  set  of  rules 
for  good  behavior  and  right  living. 

Not  many  boys  twelve  years  old  would  care 
for  such  a  book  nowadays.  But  you  must  know 
that  in  those  days  there  were  no  books  for  chil- 
dren, and,  indeed,  very  few  for  older  people. 

The  maxims  and  wise  sayings  which  George 
copied  were,  no  doubt,  very  interesting  to  him  — 
so  interesting  that  many  of  them  were  never 
forgotten. 

There  are  many  other  things  also  in  this  Young 
Mans  Companion,  and  we  have  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  George  studied  them  all. 

There  are  short  chapters  on  arithmetic  and 
surveying,  rules  for  the  measuring  of  land  and 
lumber,  and  a  set  of  forms  for  notes,  deeds,  and 
other  legal  documents.  A  knowledge  of  these 
things  was,  doubtless,  of  greater  importance  to 
him  than  the  reading  of  many  books  would  have 
been. 

Just  what  else  George  may  have  studied  in 
Mr.  Williams's  school  I  cannot  say.  But  all  this 
time  he  was  growing  to  be  a  stout,  manly  boy, 


1 8          THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

tall  and  strong,  and  well-behaved.  And  both 
his  brothers  and  himself  were  beginning  to  think 
of  what  he  should  do  when  he  should  become  a 
man. 

IV.  —  GOING  TO  SEA 

Once  every  summer  a  ship  came  up  the  river 
to  the  plantation,  and  was  moored  near  the  shore. 

It  had  come  across  the  sea  from  far-away  Eng- 
land, and  it  brought  many  things  for  those  who 
were  rich  enough  to  pay  for  them. 

It  brought  bonnets  and  pretty  dresses  for 
George's  mother  and  sisters  ;  it  brought  perhaps 
a  hat  and  a  tailor-made  suit  for  himself;  it 
brought  tools  and  furniture,  and  once  a  yellow 
coach  that  had  been  made  in  London,  for  his 
brother. 

When  all  these  things  had  been  taken  ashore, 
the  ship  would  hoist  her  sails  and  go  on,  farther 
up  the  river,  to  leave  goods  at  other  plantations. 

In  a  few  weeks  it  would  come  back  and  be 
moored  again  at  the  same  place. 

Then  there  was  a  busy  time  on  shore.  The 
tobacco  that  had  been  raised  during  the  last  year 


GOING  TO  SEA  19 

must  be  carried  on  shipboard  to  be  taken  to  the 
great  tobacco  markets  in  England. 

The  slaves  on  the  plantation  were  running  back 
and  forth,  rolling  barrels  and  carrying  bales  of 
tobacco  down  to  the  landing. 

Letters  were  written  to  friends  in  England,, 
and  orders  were  made  out  for  the  goods  that 
were  to  be  brought  back  next  year. 

But  in  a  day  or  two,  all  this  stir  was  over.  The 
sails  were  again  spread,  and  the  ship  glided  away 
on  its  long  voyage  across  the  sea. 

George  had  seen  this  ship  coming  and  going 
every  year  since  he  could  remember.  He  must 
have  thought  how  pleasant  it  would  be  to  sail 
away  to  foreign  lands  and  see  the  many  wonder- 
ful things  that  are  there. 

And  then,  like  many  another  active  boy,  he 
began  to  grow  tired  of  the  quiet  life  on  the  farm, 
and  wish  that  he  might  be  a  sailor. 

He  was  now  about  fourteen  years  old.  Since 
the  death  of  his  father,  his  mother  had  found  it 
hard  work,  with  her  five  children,  to  manage  her 
farm  on  the  Rappahannock  and  make  everything 
come  out  even  at  the  end  of  each  year.  Was  it 


20          THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

not  time  that  George  should  be  earning  some- 
thing for  himself  ?  But  what  should  he  do  ? 

He  wanted  to  go  to  sea.  His  brother  Law- 
rence, and  even  his  mother,  thought  that  this 
might  be  the  best  thing. 

A  bright  boy  like  George  would  not  long  be  a 
common  sailor.  He  would  soon  make  his  way 
to  a  high  place  in  the  king's  navy.  So,  at  least, 
his  friends  believed. 

And  so  the  matter  was  at  last  settled.  A  sea- 
captain  who  was  known  to  the  family,  agreed  to 
take  George  with  him.  He  was  to  sail  in  a  short 
time. 

The  day  came.  His  mother,  his  brothers,  his 
sisters,  were  all  there  to  bid  him  good-bye.  But 
in  the  meanwhile  a  letter  had  come  to  his  mother, 
from  his  uncle  who  lived  in  England. 

"If  you  care  for  the  boy's  future,"  said  the 
letter,  "do  not  let  him  go  to  sea.  Places  in  the 
king's  navy  are  not  easy  to  obtain.  If  he  begins 
as  a  sailor,  he  will  never  be  aught  else." 

The  letter  convinced  George's  mother  —  it  half 
convinced  his  brothers  —  that  this  going  to  sea 
would  be  a  sad  mistake.  But  George,  like  other 


GOING  TO  SEA  21 

boys  of  his  age,  was  headstrong.  He  would  not 
listen  to  reason.  A  sailor  he  would  be. 

The  ship  was  in  the  river  waiting  for  him.  A 
boat  had  come  to  the  landing  to  take  him  on 
board. 

The  little  chest  which  held  his  clothing  had 
been  carried  down  to  the  bank.  George  was  in 
high  glee  at  the  thought  of  going. 

"  Good-bye,  mother,"  he  said. 

He  stood  on  the  doorstep  and  looked  back  into 
the  house.  He  saw  the  kind  faces  of  those  whom 
he  loved.  He  began  to  feel  very  sad  at  the 
thought  of  leaving  them. 

"Good-bye,  George  !" 

He  saw  the  tears  welling  up  in  his  mother's 
eyes.  He  saw  them  rolling  down  her  cheeks. 
He  knew  now  that  she  did  not  want  him  to  go. 
He  could  not  bear  to  see  her  grief. 

"Mother,  I  have  changed  my  mind,"  he. said. 
"I  will  not  be  a  sailor.  I  will  not  leave  you." 

Then  he  turned  to  the  black  boy  who  was 
waiting  by  the  door,  and  said,  "Run  down  to  the 
landing  and  tell  them  not  to  put  the  chest  on 
board.  Tell  them  that  I  have  thought  differently 


22          THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

of  the  matter  and  that  I  am  going  to  stay  at 
home." 

If  George  had  not  changed  his  mind,  but  had 
really  gone  to  sea,  how  very  different  the  history 
of  this  country  would  have  been  ! 

He  now  went  to  his  studies  with  a  better  will 
than  before ;  and  although  he  read  but  few  books 
he  learned  much  that  was  useful  to  him  in  life. 
He  studied  surveying  with  especial  care,  and 
made  himself  as  thorough  in  that  branch  of 
knowledge  as  it  was  possible  to  do  with  so  few 
advantages. 

V.  -  -  THE  YOUNG  SURVEYOR 

Lawrence  Washington  was  about  fourteen 
years  older  than  his  brother  George. 

As  I  have  already  said,  he  had  been  to  Eng- 
land and  had  spent  some  time  at  Appleby  School. 
He  had  served  in  the  king's  army  for  a  little 
while,  and  had  been  with  Admiral  Vernon's 
squadron  in  the  West  Indies. 

He  had  formed  so  great  a  liking  for  the  ad- 
miral that  when  he  came  home  he  changed  the 
name  of  his  plantation  at  Hunting  Creek,  and 


THE  YOUNG  SURVEYOR  23 

called  it  Mount  Vernon  —  a  name  by  which  it  is 
still  known. 

Not  far  from  Mount  Vernon  there  was  another 
fine  plantation  called  Belvoir,  that  was  owned 
by  William  Fairfax,  an  English  gentleman  of 
much  wealth  and  influence.  Now  this  Mr.  Fairfax 
had  a  young  daughter,  as  wise  as  she  was  beauti- 
ful ;  and  so,  what  should  Lawrence  Washington 
do  but  ask  her  to  be  his  wife  ?  He  built  a  large 
house  at  Mount  Vernon  with  a  great  porch  front- 
ing on  the  Potomac ;  and  when  Miss  Fairfax  be- 
came Mrs.  Washington  and  went  into  this  home  as 
its  mistress,  people  said  that  there  was  not  a  hand- 
somer or  happier  young  couple  in  all  Virginia. 

After. young  George  Washington  had  changed 
his  mind  about  going  to  sea,  he  went  up  to 
Mount  Vernon  to  live  with  his  elder  brother. 
For  Lawrence  had  great  love  for  the  boy,  and 
treated  him  as  his  father  would  have  done. 

At   Mount   Vernon   George   kept   on   with   his' 
studies    in    surveying.     He    had    a    compass    and 
surveyor's  chain,  and  hardly  a  day  passed  that 
he  was  not  out  on  the  plantation,  running  lines 
and  measuring  his  brother's  fields. 


24          THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

Sometimes  when  he  was  busy  at  this  kind  of 
work,  a  tall,  white-haired  gentleman  would  come 
over  from  Belvoir  to  see  what  he  was  doing  and  to 
talk  with  him.  This  gentleman  was  Sir  Thomas 
Fairfax,  a  cousin  of  the  owner  of  Belvoir.  He 
was  sixty  years  old,  and  had  lately  come  from 
England  to  look  after  his  lands  in  Virginia  ;  for 
he  was  the  owner  of  many  thousands  of  acres 
among  the  mountains  and  in  the  wild  woods. 

Sir  Thomas  was  a  courtly  old  gentleman,  and  he 
had  seen  much  of  the  world.  He  was  a  fine  scholar  ; 
he  had  been  a  soldier,  and  then  a  man  of  letters ; 
and  he  belonged  to  a  rich  and  noble  family. 

It  was  not  long  until  he  and  George  were  the 
best  of  friends.  Often  they  would  spend  the 
morning  together,  talking  or  surveying ;  and  in 
the  afternoon  they  would  ride  out  with  servants 
and  hounds,  hunting  foxes  and  making  fine  sport 
of  it  among  the  woods  and  hills. 

And  when  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax  saw  how  manly 
and  brave  his  young  friend  was,  and  how  very 
exact  and  careful  in  all  that  he  did,  he  said : 
"  Here  is  a  boy  who  gives  promise  of  great  things. 
I  can  trust  him." 


THE  YOUNG  SURVEYOR  25 

Before  the  winter  was  over  he  had  made  a 
bargain  with  George  to  survey  his  lands  that  lay 
beyond  the  Blue  Ridge  Mountains. 

I  have  already  told  you  that  at  this  time  nearly 
all  the  country  west  of  the  mountains  was  a  wild 
and  unknown  region.  In  fact,  all  the  western 
part  of  Virginia  was  an  unbroken  wilderness, 
with  only  here  and  there  a  hunter's  camp  or  the 
solitary  hut  of  some  daring  woodsman. 

But  Sir  Thomas  hoped  that  by  having  the  land 
surveyed,  and  some  part  of  it  laid  out  into  farms, 
people  might  be  persuaded  to  go  there  and 
settle.  And  who  in  all  the  colony  could  do 
this  work  better  than  his  young  friend  George 
Washington  ? 

It  was  a  bright  day  in  March,  1748,  when 
George  started  out  on  his  first  trip  across  the 
mountains.  His  only  company  was  a  young  son 
of  William  Fairfax  of  Belvoir. 

The  two  friends  were  mounted  on  good  horses  ; 
and  both  had  guns,  for  there  was  fine  hunting  in 
the  woods.  It  was  nearly  a  hundred  miles  to 
the  mountain-gap  through  which  they  passed  into 
the  country  beyond.  As  there  were  no  roads, 


26          THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

but  only  paths  through  the  forest,  they  could  not 
travel  very  fast. 

After  several  days  they  reached  the  beautiful 
valley  of  the  Shenandoah.  They  now  began 
their  surveying.  They  went  up  the  river  for 
some  distance ;  then  they  crossed  and  went  down 
on  the  other  side.  At  last  they  reached  the  Poto- ' 
mac  River,  near  where  Harpers  Ferry  now  stands. 

At  night  they  slept  sometimes  by  a  camp  fire 
in  the  woods,  and  sometimes  in  the  rude  hut  of 
a  settler  or  a  hunter.  They  were  often  wet  and 
cold.  They  cooked  their  meat  by  broiling  it  on 
sticks  above  the  coals.  They  ate  without  dishes, 
and  drank  water  from  the  running  streams. 

One  day  they  met  a  party  of  Indians,  the  first 
red  men  they  had  seen.  There  were  thirty  of 
them,  with  their  bodies  painted  in  true  savage 
style  ;  for  they  were  just  going  home  from  a  war 
with  some  other  tribe. 

The  Indians  were  very  friendly  to  the  young 
surveyors.  It  was  evening,  and  they  built  a  huge 
fire  under  the  trees.  Then  they  danced  their 
war  dance  around  it,  and  sang  and  yelled  and 
made  hideous  sport  until  far  in  the  night. 


THE  YOUNG  SURVEYOR  27 

To  George  and  his  friend  it  was  a  strange  sight ; 
but  they  were  brave  young  men,  and  not  likely 
to  be  afraid  even  though  the  danger  had  been 
greater. 

They  had  many  other  adventures  in  the  woods 
of  which  I  cannot  tell  you  in  this  little  book  - 
shooting  wild   game,   swimming   rivers,   climbing 
mountains.     But  about  the  middle  of  April  they 
returned  in  safety  to  Mount  Vernon. 

It  would  seem  that  the  object  of  this  first  trip 
was  to  get  a  general  knowledge  of  the  extent  of 
Sir  Thomas  Fairfax's  great  woodland  estate  —  to 
learn  where  the  richest  bottom  lands  lay,  and 
where  were  the  best  hunting  grounds. 

The  young  men  had  not  done  much  if  any  real 
surveying ;  they  had  been  exploring. 

George  Washington  had  written  an  account  of 
everything  in  a  little  notebook  which  he  carried 
with  him. 

Sir  Thomas  was  so  highly  pleased  with  the  re- 
port which  the  young  men  brought  back  that  he 
made  up  his  mind  to  move  across  the  Blue  Ridge 
and  spend  the  rest  of  his  life  on  his  own  lands. 

And   so,   that   very   summer,    he   built    in    the 


28          THE  STOKY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

midst  of  the  great  woods  a  hunting  lodge  which 
he  called  Greenway  Court.  It  was  a  large,  square 
house,  with  broad  gables  and  a  long  roof  sloping 
almost  to  the  ground. 

When  he  moved  into  this  lodge  he  expected 
soon  to  build  a  splendid  mansion  and  make  a 
grand  home  there,  like  the  homes  he  had  known 
in  England.  But  time  passed,  and  as  the  lodge 
was  roomy  and  comfortable,  he  still  lived  in  it 
and  put  off  beginning  another  house. 

Washington  was  now  seventeen  years  old. 
Through  the  influence  of  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax  he 
was  appointed  public  surveyor ;  and  nothing  would 
do  but  that  he  must  spend  the  most  of  his  time 
at  Greenway  Court  and  keep  on  with  the  work 
that  he  had  begun. 

For  the  greater  part  of  three  years  he  worked 
in  the  woods  and  among  the  mountains,  survey- 
ing Sir  Thomas's  lands.  And  Sir  Thomas  paid 
him  well  —  a  doubloon  ($8.24)  for  each  day,  and 
more  than  that  if  the  work  was  very  hard. 

But  there  were  times  when  the  young  surveyor 
did  not  go  out  to  work,  but  stayed  at  Greenway 
Court  with  his  good  friend,  Sir  Thomas.  The 


THE  OHIO  COUNTRY  29 

old  gentleman  had  something  of  a  library,  and 
on  days  when  they  could  neither  work  nor  hunt, 
George  spent  the  time  in  reading.  He  read  the 
Spectator  and  a  history  of  England,  and  possibly 
some  other  works. 

And  so  it  came  about  that  the  three  years  which 
young  Washington  spent  in  surveying  were  of 
much  profit  to  him. 

The  work  in  the  open  air  gave  him  health  and 
strength.  He  gained  courage  and  self-reliance. 
He  became  acquainted  with  the  ways  of  the  back- 
woodsmen and  of  the  savage  Indians.  And  from 
Sir  Thomas  Fairfax  he  learned  a  great  deal  about 
the  history,  the  laws,  and  the  military  affairs  of 
old  England. 

And  in  whatever  he  undertook  to  do  or  to  learn, 
he  was  careful  and  systematic  and  thorough. 
He  did  nothing  by  guess ;  he  never  left  anything 
half  done.  And  therein,  let  me  say  to  you,  lie 
the  secrets  of  success  in  any  calling. 

VI.  -  -  THE  OHIO  COUNTRY 

You  have  already  learned  how  the  English 
people  had  control  of  all  that  part  of  our  country 


30          THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

which  borders  upon  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  You 
have  learned,  also,  that  they  had  made  thirteen 
great  settlements  along  the  coast,  while  all  the 
vast  region  west  of  the  mountains  remained  a 
wild  and  unknown  land. 

Now,  because  Englishmen  had  been  the  first 
white  men  to  see  the  line  of  shore  that  stretches 
from  Maine  to  Georgia,  they  set  up  a  claim  to  all 
the  land  west  of  that  line. 

They  had  no  idea  how  far  the  land  extended. 
They  knew  almost  nothing  about  its  great  rivers, 
its  vast  forests,  its  lofty  mountains,  its  rich 
prairies.  They  cared  nothing  for  the  claims  of 
the  Indians  whose  homes  were  there. 

"All  the  land  from  ocean  to  ocean,"  they  said, 
''belongs  to  the  King  of  England." 

But  there  were  other  people  who  also  had 
something  to  say  about  this  matter. 

The  French  had  explored  the  Mississippi  River. 
They  had  sailed  on  the  Great  Lakes.  Their 
hunters  and  trappers  were  roaming  through  the 
western  forests.  They  had  made  treaties  with 
the  Indians ;  and  they  had  built  trading  posts, 
here  and  there,  along  the  watercourses. 


THE  OHIO  COUNTRY  31 

They  said,  'The  English  people  may  keep 
their  strip  of  land  between  the  mountains  and 
the  sea.  But  these  great  river  valleys  and  this 
country  around  the  Lakes  are  ours,  because  we 
have  been  the  first  to  explore  and  make  use  of 
them." 

Now,  about  the  time  that  George  Washington 
was  thinking  of  becoming  a  sailor,  some  of  the 
rich  planters  in  Virginia  began  to  hear  wonder- 
ful stories  about  a  fertile  region  west  of  the  Al- 
leghenies,  watered  by  a  noble  river,  and  rich  in 
game  and  fur-bearing  animals. 

This  region  was  called  the  Ohio  Country,  from 
the  name  of  the  river ;  and  those  who  took  pains 
to  learn  the  most  about  it  were  satisfied  that  it 
would,  at  some  time,  be  of  very  great  importance 
to  the  people  who  should  control  it. 

And  so  these  Virginian  planters  and  certain 
Englishmen  formed  a  company  called  the  Ohio 
Company,  the  object  of  which  was  to  explore 
the  country,  and  make  money  by  establishing 
trading  posts  and  settlements  there.  And  of 
this  company,  Lawrence  Washington  was  one  of 
the  chief  managers. 


32          THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

Lawrence  Washington  and  his  brother  George 
had  often  talked  about  this  enterprise. 

"We  shall  have  trouble  with  the  French,"  said 
Lawrence.  "They  have  already  sent  men  into 
the  Ohio  Country ;  and  they  are  trying  in  every 
way  to  prove  that  the  land  belongs  to  them." 

"It  looks  as  if  we  should  have  to  drive  them 
out  by  force,"  said  George. 

"Yes,  and  there  will  probably  be  some  hard 
fighting,"  said  Lawrence;  "and  you,  as  a  young 
man,  must  get  yourself  ready  to  have  a  hand 
in  it." 

And  Lawrence  followed  this  up  by  persuading 
the  governor  of  the  colony  to  appoint  George  as 
one  of  the  adjutants-general  of  Virginia. 

George  was  only  nineteen  years  old,  but  he 
was  now  Major  Washington,  and  one  of  the 
most  promising  soldiers  in  America. 

VII.  —  A  CHANGE  OF  CIRCUMSTANCES 

Although  George  Washington  spent  so  much 
of  his  time  at  Greenway  Court,  he  still  called 
Mount  Vernon  his  home. 

Going  down  home  in  the  autumn,  just  before 


A  CHANGE  OF  CIRCUMSTANCES  33 

he  was  twenty  years  old,  he  found  matters  in  a 
sad  state,  and  greatly  changed. 

His  brother  Lawrence  was  very  ill  --  indeed,  he 

had  been  ill  a  long  time.     He  had  tried  a  trip  to 

'  England  ;    he  had  spent  a  summer  at  the  warm 

springs ;    but  all  to  no  purpose.     He  was  losing 

strength  every  day. 

The  sick  man  dreaded  the  coming  of  cold 
weather.  If  he  could  only  go  to  the  warm  West 
Indies  before  winter  set  in,  perhaps  that  would 
prolong  his  life.  Would  George  go  with  him  ? 

No  loving  brother  could  refuse  a  request  like 
that. 

The  captain  of  a  ship  in  the  West  India  trade 
agreed  to  take  them  ;  and  so,  while  it  was  still 
pleasant  September,  the  two  Washingtons  em- 
barked for  Barbadoes,  which,  then  as  now,  be- 
longed to  the  English. 

It  was  the  first  time  that  George  had  ever  been 
outside  of  his  native  land,  and  it  proved  to  be 
also  the  last.  He  took  careful  notice  of  every- 
thing that  he  saw ;  and,  in  the  little  notebook 
which  he  seems  to  have  always  had  with  him,  he 
wrote  a  brief  account  of  the  trip. 


34          THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

He  had  not  been  three  weeks  at  Barbadoes 
before  he  was  taken  down  with  the  smallpox ; 
and  for  a  month  he  was  very  sick.  And  so  his 
winter  in  the  West  Indies  could  not  have  been 
very  pleasant. 

In  February  the  two  brothers  returned  home 
to  Mount  Vernon.  Lawrence's  health  had  not 
been  bettered  by  the  journey.  He  was  now  very 
feeble ;  but  he  lingered  on  until  July,  when  he 
died. 

By  his  will  Lawrence  Washington  left  his  fine 
estate  of  Mount  Vernon,  and  all  the  rest  of  his 
wealth,  to  his  little  daughter.  But  George  was 
to  be  the  daughter's  guardian  ;  and  in  case  of 
her  death,  all  her  vast  property  was  to  be  his 
own. 

And  so,  before  he  was  quite  twenty-one  years 
old,  George  Washington  was  settled  at  Mount  Ver- 
non as  the  manager  of  one  of  the  richest  estates 
in  Virginia.  The  death  of  his  little  niece  not 
long  afterward  made  him  the  owner  of  this  es- 
tate, and,  of  course,  a  very  wealthy  man. 

But  within  a  brief  time,  events  occurred  which 
called  him  away  from  his  peaceful  employments. 


A  PERILOUS  JOURNEY  35 

VIII.  —  A  PERILOUS  JOURNEY 

Early  the  very  next  year  news  was  brought  to 
Virginia  that  the  French  were  building  forts 
along  the  Ohio,  and  making  friends  with  the  In- 
dians there.  This  of  course  meant  that  they  in- 
tended to  keep  the  English  out  of  that  country. 

The  governor  of  Virginia  thought  that  the  time 
had  come  to  speak  out  about  this  matter.  He 
would  send  a  messenger  with  a  letter  to  these 
Frenchmen,  telling  them  that  all  the  land  be- 
longed to  the  English,  and  that  no  trespassing 
would  be  allowed. 

The  first  messenger  that  he  sent  became 
alarmed  before  he  was  within  a  hundred  miles  of 
a  Frenchman,  and  went  back  to  say  that  every- 
thing was  as  good  as  lost. 

It  was  very  plain  that  a  man  with  some  cour- 
age must  be  chosen  for  such  an  undertaking. 

"I  will  send  Major  George  Washington,"  said 
the  governor.  "He  is  very  young,  but  he  is  the 
bravest  man  in  the  colony." 

Now,  promptness  was  one  of  those  traits  of 
character  which  made  George  Washington  the 


36          THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

great  man  which  he  afterward  became.  And 
so,  on  the  very  day  that  he  received  his  appoint- 
ment he  set  out  for  the  Ohio  Country. 

He  took  with  him  three  white  hunters,  two  In- 
dians, and  a  famous  woodsman,  whose  name  was 
Christopher  Gist.  A  small  tent  or  two,  and  such 
few  things  as  they  would  need  on  the  journey, 
were  strapped  on  the  backs  of  horses. 

They  pushed  through  the  woods  in  a  north- 
westwardly direction,  and  at  last  reached  a  place 
called  Venango,  not  very  far  from  where  Pitts- 
burgh now  stands.  This  was  the  first  outpost  of 
the  French ;  and  there  Washington  met  some  of 
the  French  officers,  and  heard  them  talk  about 
what  they  proposed  to  do. 

Then,  after  a  long  ride  to  the  north,  they  came 
to  another  fort.  The  French  commandant  was 
here,  and  he  welcomed  Washington  with  a  great 
show  of  kindness. 

Washington  gave  him  the  letter  which  he  had 
brought  from  the  governor  of  Virginia. 

The  commandant  read  it,  and  two  days  after- 
ward gave  him  an  answer. 

He  said  that  he  would  forward  the  letter  to  the 


A   PERILOUS  JOURNEY  37 

French  governor ;  but  as  for  the  Ohio  Country, 
he  had  been  ordered  to  hold  it,  and  he  meant  to 
do  so. 

Of  course  Washington  could  do  nothing  fur- 
ther. But  it  was  plain  to  him  that  the  news  ought 
to  be  carried  back  to  Virginia  without  delay. 

It  was  now  midwinter.  As  no  horse  could 
travel  through  the  trackless  woods  at  this  time 
of  year,  he  must  make  his  way  on  foot. 

So,  with  only  the  woodsman,  Gist,  he  shouldered 
his  rifle  and  knapsack,  and  bravely  started  home. 

It  was  a  terrible  journey.  The  ground  was 
covered  with  snow  ;  the  rivers  were  frozen  ;  there 
was  not  even  a  path  through  the  forest.  If  Gist 
had  not  been  so  fine  a  woodsman  they  would 
hardly  have  seen  Virginia  again. 

Once  an  Indian  shot  at  Washington  from  be- 
hind a  tree.  Once  the  brave  young  man  fell  into 
a  river,  among  floating  ice,  and  would  have  been 
drowned  but  for  Gist. 

At  last  they  reached  the  house  of  a  trader  on 
the  Monongahela  River.  There  they  were  kindly 
welcomed,  and  urged  to  stay  until  the  weather 
should  grow  milder. 


38          THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

But  Washington  would  not  delay. 

Sixteen  days  after  that,  he  was  back  in  Vir- 
ginia, telling  the  governor  all  about  his  adven- 
tures, and  giving  his  opinion  about  the  best  way 
to  deal  with  the  French. 

IX. --His  FIRST  BATTLE 

It  was  now  very  plain  that  if  the  English  were 
going  to  hold  the  Ohio  Country  and  the  vast 
western  region  which  they  claimed  as  their  own, 
they  must  fight  for  it. 

The  people  of  Virginia  were  not  very  anxious 
to  go  to  war.  But  their  governor  was  not  willing 
to  be  beaten  by  the  French. 

He  made  George  Washington  a  lieutenant- 
colonel  of  Virginia  troops  and  set  about  raising 
an  army  to  send  into  the  Ohio  Country. 

Early  in  the  spring  Colonel  Washington,  with 
a  hundred  and  fifty  men,  was  marching  across  the 
country  toward  the  head  waters  of  the  Ohio.  It 
was  a  small  army  to  advance  against  the  thousands 
of  French  and  Indians  who  now  held  that  region. 

But  other  officers,  with  stronger  forces,  were 
expected  to  follow  close  behind. 


HIS   FIRST  BATTLE  39 

Late  in  May  the  little  army  reached  the  valley 
of  the  Monongahela,  and  began  to  build  a  fort 
at  a  place  called  Great  Meadows. 

By  this  time  the  French  and  Indians  were 
aroused,  and  hundreds  of  them  were  hurrying 
forward  to  defend  the  Ohio  Country  from  the 
English.  One  of  their  scouting  parties,  coming 
up  the  river,  was  met  by  Washington  with  forty 
men. 

The  French  were  not  expecting  any  foe  at  this 
place.  There  were  but  thirty-two  of  them  ;  and 
of  these  only  one  escaped.  Ten  were  killed,  and 
the  rest  were  taken  prisoners. 

This  was  Washington's  first  battle,  and  he  was 
more  proud  of  it  than  you  might  suppose.  He 
sent  his  prisoners  to  Virginia,  and  was  ready 
now,  with  his  handful  of  men,  to  meet  all  the 
French  and  Indians  that  might  come  against  him  ! 

And  they  did  come,  and  in  greater  numbers 
than  he  had  expected.  He  made  haste  to  finish, 
if  possible,  the  fort  that  had  been  begun. 

But  they  were  upon  him  before  he  was  ready. 
They  had  four  men  to  his  one.  They  surrounded 
the  fort  and  shut  his  little  Virginian  army  in. 


40          THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

What  could  Colonel  Washington  do  ?  His 
soldiers  were  already  half-starved.  There  was 
but  little  food  in  the  fort,  and  no  way  to  get  any 
more. 

The  French  leader  asked  if  he  did  not  think  it 
would  be  a  wise  thing  to  surrender.  Washington 
hated  the  very  thought  of  it ;  but  nothing  else 
could  be  done. 

"If  you  will  march  your  men  straight  home 
and  give  me  a  pledge  that  they  and  all  Virginians 
will  stay  out  of  the  Ohio  Country  for  the  next 
twelve  months,  you  may  go,"  said  the  Frenchman. 

It  was  done. 

Washington,  full  of  disappointment,  went  back 
to  Mount  Vernon.  But  he  felt  more  like  fighting 
than  ever  before. 

He  was  now  twenty-two  years  old. 

X. --THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR 

In  the  meanwhile  the  King  of  England  had 
heard  how  the  French  were  building  forts  along 
the  Ohio  and  how  they  were  sending  their  traders 
to  the  Great  Lakes  and  to  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi. 


THE   FRENCH   AND  INDIAN  WAR  41 

"If  we  allow  them  to  go  on  in  this  way,  they 
will  soon  take  all  that  vast  western  country  away 
from  us,"  he  said. 

And  so,  the  very  next  winter,  he  sent  over  an 
army  under  General  Edward  Braddock  to  drive 
the  French  out  of  that  part  of  America  and 
at  the  same  time  teach  their  Indian  friends  a 
lesson. 

It  was  in  February,  1755,  when  General  Brad- 
dock  and  his  troops  went  into  camp  at  Alexan- 
dria in  Virginia.  As  Alexandria  was  only  a  few 
miles  from  Mount  Vernon,  Washington  rode  over 
to  see  the  fine  array  and  become  acquainted  with 
the  officers. 

When  General  Braddock  heard  that  this  was 
the  young  man  who  had  ventured  so  boldly  into 
the  Ohio  Country,  he  offered  him  a  place  on  his 
staff.  This  was  very  pleasing  to  Washington,  for 
there  was  nothing  more  attractive  to  him  than 
soldiering. 

It  was  several  weeks  before  the  army  was  ready 
to  start :  and  then  it  moved  so  slowly  that  it  did 
not  reach  the  Monongahela  until  July. 

The   soldiers   in    their    fine    uniforms    made    a 


. 
42  THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

splendid  appearance  as  they  marched  in  regular 
order  across  the  country. 

Benjamin  Franklin,  one  of  the  wisest  men  in 
America,  had  told  General  Braddock  that  his 
greatest  danger  would  be  from  unseen  foes  hidden 
among  the  underbrush  and  trees. 

'They  may  be  dangerous  to  your  backwoods- 
men," said  Braddock;  "but  to  the  trained  sol- 
diers of  the  king  they  can  give  no  trouble  at  all." 

But  scarcely  had  the  army  crossed  the  Mo- 
nongahela  when  it  was  fired  upon  by  unseen 
enemies.  The  woods  rang  with  the  cries  of 
savage  men. 

The  soldiers  knew  not  how  to  return  the  fire. 
They  were  shot  down  in  their  tracks  like  animals 
in  a  pen. 

"Let  the  men  take  to  the  shelter  of  the  trees  !" 
was  Washington's  advice. 

But  Braddock  would  not  listen  to  it.  They 
must  keep  in  order  and  fight  as  they  had  been 
trained  to  fight. 

Washington  rode  hither  and  thither  trying  his 
best  to  save  the  day.  Two  horses  were  shot  under 
him ;  four  bullets  passed  through  his  coat ;  and 


THE   FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR  43 

still  he  was  unhurt.  The  Indians  thought  that  he 
bore  a  charmed  life,  for  none  of  them  could  hit  him. 

It  was  a  dreadful  affair  —  more  like  a  slaughter 
than  a  battle.  Seven  hundred  of  Braddock's  fine 
soldiers,  and  more  than  half  of  his  officers,  were 
killed  or  wounded.  And  all  this  havoc  was 
made  by  two  hundred  Frenchmen  and  about  six 
hundred  Indians  hidden  among  the  trees. 

At  last  Braddock  gave  the  order  to  retreat.  It 
soon  became  a  wild  flight  rather  than  a  retreat ; 
and  yet,  had  it  not  been  for  Washington,  it  would 
have  been  much  worse. 

The  General  himself  had  been  fatally  wounded. 
There  was  no  one  but  Washington  who  could 
restore  courage  to  the  frightened  men,  and  lead 
them  safely  from  the  place  of  defeat. 

Four  days  after  the  battle  General  Braddock 
died,  and  the  remnant  of  the  army,  being  now 
led  by  a  Colonel  Dunbar,  hurried  back  to  the 
eastern  settlements. 

Of  all  the  men  who  took  part  in  that  unfortu- 
nate expedition  against  the  French,  there  was 
only  one  who  gained  any  renown  therefrom, 
and  that  one  was  Colonel  George  Washington. 


44          THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

He  went  back  to  Mount  Vernon,  wishing  never 
to  be  sent  to  the  Ohio  Country  again. 

The  people  of  Virginia  were  so  fearful  lest 
the  French  and  Indians  should  follow  up  their 
victory  and  attack  the  settlements,  that  they 
quickly  raised  a  regiment  of  a  thousand  men  to 
defend  their  colony.  .  And  so  highly  did  they 
esteem  Colonel  Washington  that  they  made  him 
commander  of  all  the  forces  of  the  colony,  to  do 
with  them  as  he  might  deem  best. 

The  war  with  the  French  for  the  possession  of 
the  Ohio  Country  and  the  valley  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, had  now  fairly  begun.  It  would  be  more 
than  seven  years  before  it  came  to  an  end. 

But  most  of  the  fighting  was  done  at  the  north 
-  in  New  York  and  Canada  ;  and  so  Washington 
and  his  Virginian  soldiers  did  not  distinguish 
themselves  in  any  very  great  enterprise. 

It  was  for  them  to  keep  watch  of  the  western 
frontier  of  the  colony  lest  the  Indians  should  cross 
the  mountains  and  attack  the  settlements. 

Once,  near  the  middle  of  the  war,  Washington 
led  a  company  into  the  very  country  where  he 
had  once  traveled  on  foot  with  Christopher  Gist. 


THE  FRENCH  AND   INDIAN  WAR  45 

The  French  had  built  a  fort  at  the  place  where 
the  Ohio  River  has  its  beginning,  and  they  had 
named  it  Fort  Duquesne.  When  they  heard 
that  Washington  was  coming  they  set  fire  to  the 
fort  and  fled  down  the  river  in  boats. 

The  English  built  a  new  fort  at  the  same  place, 
and  called  it  Fort  Pitt ;  and  there  the  city  oi 
Pittsburgh  has  since  grown  up. 

And  now  Washington  resigned  his  commis- 
sion as  commander  of  the  little  Virginian  army. 
Perhaps  he  was  tired  of  the  war.  Perhaps  his 
great  plantation  of  Mount  Vernon  needed  his 
care.  We  cannot  tell. 

But  we  know  that,  a  few  days  later,  he  was 
married  to  Mrs.  Martha  Custis,  a  handsome 
young  widow  who  owned  a  fine  estate  not  a  great 
way  from  Williamsburg,  the  capital  of  the  colony. 
This  was  in  January,  1759. 

At  about  the  same  time  he  was  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  House  of  Burgesses  of  Virginia  ;  and 
three  months  later,  he  went  down  to  Williams- 
burg  to  have  a  hand  in  making  some  of  the  laws 
for  the  colony. 

He  was  now  twenty-seven  years  old.     Young 


46          THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

as  he  was,  he  was  one  of  the  richest  men  in  the 
colony,  and  he  was  known  throughout  the  country 
as  the  bravest  of  American  soldiers. 

The  war  was  still  going  on  at  the  north.  To 
most  of  the  Virginians  it  seemed  to  be  a  thing 
far  away. 

At  last,  in  1763,  a  treaty  of  peace  was  made. 
The  French  had  been  beaten,  and  they  were 
obliged  to  give  up  everything  to  the  English. 
They  lost  not  only  the  Ohio  Country  and  all  the 
great  West,  but  Canada  also. 

XL --THE  MUTTERINGS  OF  THE  STORM 

And  now  for  several  years  Washington  lived 
the  life  of  a  country  gentleman.  He  had  enough 
to  do,  taking  care  of  his  plantations,  hunting 
foxes  with  his  sport-loving  neighbors,  and  sitting 
for  a  part  of  each  year  in  the  House  of  Burgesses 
at  Williamsburg. 

He  was  a  tall  man  --  more  than  six  feet  in 
height.  He  had  a  commanding  presence  and  a 
noble  air,  which  plainly  said :  'This  is  no 
common  man." 

He  was  shrewd  in  business.     He  was  the  best 


.  '«•  ^ 


48          THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

horseman  and  the  best  walker  in  Virginia.     And 
no  man  knew  more  about  farming  than  he. 

And  so  the  years  passed  pleasantly  enough  at 
Mount  Vernon,  and  there  were  few  who  dreamed 
of  the  great  events  and  changes  that  were  soon 
to  take  place. 

King  George  the  Third  of  England,  who  was 
the  ruler  of  the  thirteen  colonies,  had  done  many 
unwise  things. 

He  had  made  laws  forbidding  the  colonists 
from  trading  with  other  countries  than  his  own. 

He  would  not  let  them  build  factories  to  weave 
their  wool  and  flax  into  cloth. 
x  He  wanted  to  force  them  to  buy  all  their  goods 
in  England,  and  to  send  their  corn  and  tobacco 
and  cotton  there  to  pay  for  them. 

And  now  after  the  long  war  with  France  he 
wanted  to  make  the  colonists  pay  heavy  taxes  in 
order  to  meet  the  expenses  of  that  war. 

They  must  not  drink  a  cup  of  tea  without  first 
paying  tax  on  it ;  they  must  not  sign  a  deed  or  a 
note  without  first  buying  stamped  paper  on  which 
to  write  it. 

In  every  colony  there  was  great  excitement  on 


THE  MUTTERINGS  OF  THE  STORM  49 

account  of  the  tea  tax  and  the  stamp  act,  as  it 
was  called. 

In  the  House  of  Burgesses  at  Williamsburg,  a 
young  man,  whose  name  was  Patrick  Henry,  made 
a  famous  speech  in  which  he  declared  that  the  king 
had  no  right  to  tax  them  without  their  consent. 

George  Washington  heard  that  speech,  and 
gave  it  his  approval. 

Not  long  afterward,  news  came  that  in  Boston 
a  shipload  of  tea  had  been  thrown  into  the  sea 
by  the  colonists.  Rather  than  pay  the  tax  upon 
it,  they  would  drink  no  tea. 

Then,  a  little  later,  still  other  news  came.  The 
king  had  closed  the  port  of  Boston,  and  would 
not  allow  any  ships  to  come  in  or  go  out. 

More  than  this,  he  had  sent  over  a  body  of 
soldiers,  and  had  quartered  them  in  Boston  in 
-order  to  keep  the  people  in  subjection. 

The  whole  country  was  aroused  now.  What 
did  this  mean  ?  Did  the  king  intend  to  take 
away  from  the  colonists  all  the  liberties  that  are 
so  dear  to  men  ? 

The  colonies  must  unite  and  agree  upon  doing 
something  to  protect  themselves  and  preserve 


50          THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

their  freedom.  In  order  to  do  this  each  colony 
was  asked  to  send  delegates  to  Philadelphia  to 
talk  over  the  matter  and  see  what  would  be  the 
best  thing  to  do. 

George  Washington  was  one  of  the  delegates 
from  Virginia. 

Before  starting  he  made  a  great  speech  in  the 
House  of  Burgesses.  "If  necessary,  I  will  raise  a 
thousand  men,"  he  said,  "subsist  them  at  my 
own  expense,  and  march  them  to  the  relief  of 
Boston." 

But  the  time  for  marching  to  Boston  had  not 
quite  come. 

The  delegates  from  the  different  colonies  met 
in  Carpenter's  Hall,  in  Philadelphia,  on  the  5th 
of  September,  1774.  Their  meeting  has  since 
been  known  as  the  First  Continental  Congress  of 
America. 

For  fifty-one  days  those  wise,  thoughtful  men 
discussed  the  great  question  that  had  brought 
them  together.  What  could  the  colonists  do  to 
escape  the  oppressive  laws  that  the  King  of  Eng- 
land was  trying  to  force  upon  them  ? 

Many     powerful     speeches    were     made,     but 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  THE  WAR  51 

George  Washington  sat  silent.  He  was  a  doer 
rather  than  a  talker. 

At  last  the  Congress  decided  to  send  an  ad- 
dress to  the  king  to  remind  him  of  the  rights  of 
the  colonists,  and  humbly  beg  that  he  would  not 
enforce  his  unjust  laws. 

And  then,  when  all  had  been  done  that  could 
be  done,  Washington  went  back  to  his  home  at 
Mount  Vernon,  to  his  family  and  his  friends,  his 
big  plantations,  his  fox-hunting,  and  his  pleasant 
life  as  a  country  gentleman. 

But  he  knew  as  well  as  any  man  that  more 
serious  work  was  near  at  hand. 

XII.  -  -THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  WAR 

All  that  winter  the  people  of  the  colonies  were 
anxious  and  fearful.  Would  the  king  pay  any 
heed  to  their  petition  ?  Or  would  he  force  them 
to  obey  his  unjust  laws  ? 

Then,   in  the  spring,  news  came  from  Boston 

that    matters    were    growing    worse    and    worse. 

The  soldiers  who  were  quartered  in  that  city  were 

daily  becoming  more  insolent  and  overbearing. 

'These  people  ought  to  have  their  town  knocked 


52          THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

about  their  ears  and  destroyed,"  said  one  of  the 
king's  officers. 

On  the  igth  of  April  a  company  of  the  king's 
soldiers  started  to  Concord,  a  few  miles  from 
Boston,  to  seize  some  powder  which  had  been 
stored  there.  Some  of  the  colonists  met  them 
at  Lexington,  and  there  was  a  battle. 

This  was  the  first  battle  in  that  long  war  com- 
monly called  the  Revolution. 

Washington  was  now  on  his  way  to  the  North 
again.  The  Second  Continental  Congress  was  to 
meet  in  Philadelphia  in  May,  and  he  was  again 
a  delegate  from  Virginia. 

In  the  first  days  of  the  Congress  no  man  was 
busier  than  he.  No  man  seemed  to  understand 
the  situation  of  things  better  than  he.  No  man 
was  listened  to  with  greater  respect ;  and  yet  he 
said  but  little. 

Every  day,  he  came  into  the  hall  wearing  the 

blue  and  buff  uniform  which  belonged  to  him  as 

a  Virginia  colonel.     It  was  as  much  as  to  say : 

'The    time    for    fighting    has    come,   and    I    am 

ready." 

The  Congress  thought  it  best  to  send  another 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  THE  WAR  53 

humble  petition  to  the  king,  asking  him  not  to 
deprive  the  people  of  their  just  rights. 

In  the  meantime  brave  men  were  flocking 
towards  Boston  to  help  the  people  defend  them- 
selves from  the  violence  of  the  king's  soldiers. 
The  war  had  begun,  and  no  mistake. 

The  men  of  Congress  saw  now  the  necessity  of 
providing  for  this  war.  They  asked,  "Who  shall 
be  the  commander-in-chief  of  our  colonial  army  ?" 

It  was  hardly  worth  while  to  ask  such  a  ques- 
tion ;  for  there  could  be  but  one  answer.  Who, 
but  George  Washington  ? 

No  other  person  in  America  knew  so  much 
about  war  as  he.  No  other  person  was  so  well 
fitted  to  command. 

On  the  1 5th  of  June,  on  motion  of  John  Adams 
of  Massachusetts,  he  was  appointed  to  that  re- 
sponsible place.  On  the  next  day  he  made  a 
modest  but  noble  little  speech  before  Congress. 

He  told  the  members  of  that  body  that  he 
would  serve  his  country  willingly  and  as  well  as 
he  could  --  but  not  for  money.  They  might  pro- 
vide for  his  necessary  expenses,  but  he  would 
never  take  any  pay  for  his  services. 


54          THE   STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

And  so,  leaving  all  his  own  interests  out  of 
sight,  he  undertook  at  once  the  great  work  that 
had  been  entrusted  to  him.  He  undertook  it, 
not  for  profit  nor  for  honor,  but  because  of  a  feel- 
ing of  duty  to  his  fellow-men.  For  eight  weary 
years  he  forgot  himself  in  the  service  of  his 
country. 

Two  weeks  after  his  appointment  General 
Washington  rode  into  Cambridge,  near  Boston, 
and  took  formal  command  of  his  army. 

It  was  but  a  small  force,  poorly  clothed,  poorly 
armed  ;  but  every  man  had  the  love  of  country 
in  his  heart.  It  was  the  first  American  army. 

But  so  well  did  Washington  manage  matters 
that  soon  his  raw  troops  were  in  good  shape  for 
service.  And  so  hard  did  he  press  the  king's  sol- 
diers in  Boston  that,  before  another  summer,  they 
were  glad  to  take  ship  and  sail  away  from  the 
town  which  they  had  so  long  infested  and  an- 
noyed. 

XIII.  --  INDEPENDENCE 

On  the  fourth  day  of  the  following  July  there 
was  a  great  stir  in  the  town  of  Philadelphia. 


INDEPENDENCE  55 

Congress  was  sitting  in  the  Hall  of  the  State 
House.  The  streets  were  full  of  people  ;  every- 
body seemed  anxious ;  everybody  was  in  sus- 
pense. 

Men  were  crowding  around  the  State  House 
and  listening. 

"Who  is  speaking  now  ?"  asked  one. 

"John  Adams,"  was  the  answer. 

"And  who  is  speaking  now  ?" 

"Doctor  Franklin." 

"Good  !  Let  them  follow  his  advice,  for  he 
knows  what  is  best." 

Then  there  was  a  lull  outside,  for  everybody 
wanted  to  hear  what  the  great  Dr.  Franklin  had 
to  say. 

After  a  while  the  same  question  was  asked 
again:  "Who  is  speaking  now?" 

And  the  answer  was:  'Thomas  Jefferson  of 
Virginia.  It  was  he  and  Franklin  who  wrote  it." 

"Wrote  what?" 

"Why,  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  of 
course." 

A  little  later  some  one  said  :  "They  will  be 
ready  to  sign  it  soon." 


56          THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

"But  will  they  dare  to  sign  it  ?" 

"Dare  ?     They  dare  not  do  otherwise." 

Inside  the  hall  grave  men  were  discussing  the 
acts  of  the  King  of  England. 

"He  has  cut  off  our  trade  with  all  parts  of  the 
world,"  said  one. 

"He  has  forced  us  to  pay  taxes  without  our 
consent,"  said  another. 

"He  has  sent  his  soldiers  among  us  to  burn 
our  towns  and  kill  our  people,"  said  a  third. 

"He  has  tried  to  make  the  Indians  our  ene- 
mies," said  a  fourth. 

"He  is  a  tyrant  and  unfit  to  be  the  ruler  of  a 
free  people,"  agreed  they  all. 

And  then  everybody  was  silent  while  one  read  : 
"We,  therefore,  the  representatives  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  solemnly  publish  and  declare 
that  the  united  colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought 
to  be,  free  and  independent  states  " 

Soon  afterward  the  bell  in  the  high  tower 
above  the  hall  began  to  ring. 

"It  is  done!"  cried  the  people.  'They  have 
signed  the  Declaration  of  Independence." 

"Yes,  every  colony  has  voted  for  it,"  said  those 


INDEPENDENCE  57 

nearest  the  door.     ''The  King  of  England  shall 
no  longer  rule  over  us." 

And  that  was  the  way  in  which  the  United 
States  came  into  being.  The  thirteen  colonies 
were  now  thirteen  states. 

Up  to  this  time  Washington  and  his  army  had 
been  righting  for  the  rights  of  the  people  as  col- 
onists. They  had  been  fighting  in  order  to  oblige 
the  king  to  do  away  with  the  unjust  laws  which 
he  had  made.  But  now  they  were  to  fight  for 
freedom  and  for  the  independence  of  the  United 
States. 

By  and  by  you  will  read  in  your  histories  how 
wisely  and  bravely  Washington  conducted  the 
war.  You  will  learn  how  he  held  out  against 
the  king's  soldiers  on  Long  Island  and  at  White 
Plains ;  how  he  crossed  the  Delaware  amid  float- 
ing ice  and  drove  the  English  from  Trenton ; 
how  he  wintered  at  Morristown  ;  how  he  suffered 
at  Valley  Forge  ;  how  he  fought  at  Germantown . 
and  Monmouth  and  Yorktown. 

There  were  six  years  of  fighting,  of  marching 
here  and  there,  of  directing  and  planning,  of 
struggling  in  the  face  of  every  discouragement. 


58  THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

Eight  years  passed,  and  then  peace  came,  for 
independence  had  been  won,  and  this  our  country 
was  made  forever  free. 

On  the  2d  of  November,  1783,  Washington 
bade  farewell  to  his  army.  On  the  23d  of  De- 
cember he  resigned  his  commission  as  commander- 
in-chief. 

There  were  some  who  suggested  that  Wash- 
ington should  make  himself  king  of  this  country ; 
and  indeed  this  he  might  have  done,  so  great 
was  the  people's  love  and  gratitude. 

But  the  great  man  spurned  such  suggestions. 
He  said,  "If  you  have  any  regard  for  your  country 
or  respect  for  me,  banish  those  thoughts  and 
never  again  speak  of  them." 

XIV.  -  -  THE  FIRST  PRESIDENT 

Washington  was  now  fifty-two  years  old. 

The  country  was  still  in  an  unsettled  con- 
dition. True,  it  was  free  from  English  control. 
But  there  was  no  strong  government  to  hold 
the  states  together. 

Each  state  was  a  little  country  of  itself,  mak- 
ing its  own  laws,  and  having  its  own  selfish  aims 


THE  FIRST   PRESIDENT  59 

without  much  regard  for  its  sister  states.  People 
did  not  think  of  the  United  States  as  one  great 
undivided  nation. 

And  so  matters  were  in  bad  enough  shape,  and 
they  grew  worse  and  worse  as  the  months  went  by. 

Wise  men  saw  that  unless  something  should 
be  done  to  bring  about  a  closer  union  of  the 
states,  they  would  soon  be  in  no  better  condition 
than  when  ruled  by  the  English  king. 

And  so  a  great  convention  was  held  in  Phila- 
delphia to  determine  what  could  be  done  to  save 
the  country  from  ruin.  George  Washington  was 
chosen  to  preside  over  this  convention  ;  and  no 
man's  words  had  greater  weight  than  his. 

He  said,  "Let  us  raise  a  standard  to  which  the 
wise  and  honest  can  repair.  The  event  is  in  the 
hand  of  God." 

That  convention  did  a  great  and  wonderful 
work ;  for  it  framed  the  Constitution  by  which 
our  country  has  ever  since  been  governed. 

And  soon  afterwards,  in  accordance  with  that 
Constitution,  the  people  of  the  country  were 
called  upon  to  elect  a  President.  Who  should  it 
be? 


60         THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

Who  could  it  be  but  Washington  ? 

When  the  electoral  votes  were  counted,  every 
vote  was  for  George  Washington  of  Virginia. 

And  so,  on  the  i6th  of  April,  1789,  the  great 
man  again  bade  adieu  to  Mount  Vernon  and  to 
private  life,  and  set  out  for  New  York.  For  the 
city  of  Washington  had  not  yet  been  built,  and 
New  York  was  the  first  capital  of  our  country. 

There  were  no  railroads  at  that  time,  and  so 
the  journey  was  made  in  a  coach.  All  along  the 
road  the  people  gathered  to  see  their  hero-pres- 
ident and  show  him  their  love. 

On  the  3Oth  of  April  he  was  inaugurated  at 
the  old  Federal  Hall  in  New  York. 

"Long  live  George  Washington,  President  of 
the  United  States  !"  shouted  the  people.  Then 
the  cannon  roared,  the  bells  rang,  and  the  new 
government  of  the  United  States  —  the  govern- 
ment which  we  have  to-day  —  began  its  exist- 
ence. 

Washington  was  fifty-seven  years  old  at  the 
time  of  his  inauguration. 

Perhaps  no  man  was  ever  'called  to  the  doing 
of  more  difficult  things.  The  entire  government 


THE  FIRST  PRESIDENT  6l 

must  be  built  up  from  the  beginning,  and  all  its 
machinery  put  into  order. 

But  so  well  did  he  meet  the  expectations  of 
the  people,  that  when  his  first  term  was  near  its 
close  he  was  again  elected  President,  receiving 
every  electoral  vote. 

In  your  histories  you  will  learn  of  the  many 
difficult  tasks  which  he  performed  during  those 
years  of  the  nation's  infancy.  There  were  new 
troubles  with  England,  troubles  with  the  In- 
dians, jealousies  and  disagreements  among  the 
law-makers  of  the  country.  But  amidst  all  these 
trials  Washington  stood  steadfast,  wise,  cool  - 
conscious  that  he  was  right,  and  strong  enough 
to  prevail. 

Before  the  end  of  his  second  term,  people  began 
to  talk  about  electing  him  for  the  third  time. 
They  could  not  think  of  any  other  man  holding 
the  highest  office  in  the  country.  They  feared 
that  no  other  man  could  be  safely  entrusted  with 
the  great  responsibilities  which  he  had  borne  so 
nobly. 

But  Washington  declared  that  he  would  not 
accept  office  again.  The  government  was  now 


62         THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

on  a  firm  footing.  There  were  others  who  could 
manage  its  affairs  wisely  and  well. 

And  so,  in  September,  1796,  he  published  his 
Farewell  Address.  It  was  full  of  wise  and  whole- 
some advice. 

"Beware  of  attacks  upon  the  Constitution. 
Beware  of  those  who  think  more  of  their  party 
than  of  their  country.  Promote  education.  Ob- 
serve justice.  Treat  with  good  faith  all  nations. 
Adhere  to  the  right.  Be  united --be  united. 
Love  your  country."  These  were  some  of  the 
things  that  he  said. 

John  Adams,  who  had  been,  vice-pres- 
ident eight  years,  was  chosen  to  be  the  new 
President,  and  Washington  again  retired  to 
Mount  Vernon. 

XV. --"FIRST  IN  WAR,  FIRST  IN  PEACE" 

In  the  enjoyment  of  his  home  life,  Washington 
did  not  forget  his  country.  It  would,  indeed, 
have  been  hard  for  him  not  to  keep  informed 
about  public  affairs ;  for  men  were  all  the  time 
coming  to  him  to  ask  for  help  and  advice  regard- 
ing this  measure  or  that. 


"FIRST  IN  WAR,   FIRST  IN  PEACE"  63 

The  greatest  men  of  the  nation  felt  that  he 
must  know  what  was  wisest  and  best  for  the 
country's  welfare. 

Soon  after  his  retirement  an  unexpected  trouble 
arose.  There  was  another  war  between  England 
and  France.  The  French  were  very  anxious  that 
the  United  States  should  join  in  the  quarrel. 

When  they  could  not  bring  this  about  by  per- 
suasion, they  tried  abuse.  They  insulted  the 
officers  of  our  government ;  they  threatened  war. 

The  whole  country  was  aroused.  Congress  be- 
gan to  take  steps  for  the  raising  of  an  army  and 
the  building  of  a  navy.  But  who  should  lead  the 
army  ? 

All  eyes  were  again  turned  toward  Washing- 
ton. He  had  saved  the  country  once  ;  he  could 
save  it  again.  The  President  asked  him  if  he 
would  again  be  the  commander-in-chief. 

He  answered  that  he  would  do  so,  on  condi- 
tion that  he  might  choose  his  assistants.  But 
unless  the  French  should  actually  invade  this 
country,  he  must  not  be  expected  to  go  into  the 
field. 

And    so,    at    the   last,    General   Washington    is 


64          THE  STORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

again  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  American 
army.  But  there  is  to  be  no  fighting  this  time. 
The  French  see  that  the  people  of  the  United 
States  cannot  be  frightened  ;  they  see  that  the 
government  cannot  be  driven ;  they  leave  off 
their  abuse,  and  are  ready  to  make  friends. 

Washington's  work  is  done  now.  On  the  I2th 
of  December,  1799,  he  mounts  his  horse  and  rides 
out  over  his  farms.  The  weather  is  cold  ;  the 
snow  is  falling ;  but  he  stays  out  for  two  or  three 
hours. 

The  next  morning  he  has  a  sore  throat ;  he  has 
taken  cold.  The  snow  is  still  falling,  but  he  will 
go  out  again.  At  night  he  is  very  hoarse ;  he  is 
advised  to  take  medicine. 

"Oh,  no,"  he  answers,  "you  know  I  never 
take  anything  for  a  cold." 

But  in  the  night  he  grows  much  worse ;  early 
the  next  morning  the  doctor  is  brought.  It  is 
too  late.  He  grows  rapidly  worse.  He  knows 
that  the  end  is  near. 

"  It  is  well,"  he  says  ;  and  these  are  his  last  words. 

Washington  died  on  the  I4th  of  December, 
1799.  He  had  lived  nearly  sixty-eight  years. 


"FIRST  IN  WAR,   FIRST  IN  PEACE"  65 

His  sudden  death  was  a  shock  to  the  entire 
country.  Every  one  felt  as  though  he  had  lost  a 
personal  friend.  The  mourning  for  him  was 
general  and  sincere. 

In  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  his  funeral 
oration  was  pronounced  by  his  friend,  Henry 
Lee,  who  said  : 

"  First  in  war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the 
hearts  of  his  countrymen,  he  was  second  to  none 
in  the  humble  and  endearing  scenes  of  private 
life.  Pious,  just,  humane,  temperate,  uniform, 
dignified,  and  commanding,  his  example  was 
edifying  to  all  around  him,  as  were  the  effects  of 
that  example  lasting. 

"Such  was  the  man  America  has  lost  !  Such 
was  the  man  for  whom  our  country  mourns  !" 


THE   STORY    OF 
BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN 


BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN 

I.  -  -  THE  WHISTLE 

Nearly  two  hundred  years  ago,  there  lived  in 
Boston  a  little  boy  whose  name  was  Benjamin 
Franklin. 

On  the  day  that  he  was  seven  years  old,  his 
mother  gave  him  a  few  pennies. 

He  looked  at  the  bright,  yellow  pieces  and 
said,  "What  shall  I  do  with  these  coppers, 
mother  ?" 

It  was  the  first  money  that  he  had  ever  had. 

:'You  may  buy  something  with  them,  if  you 
would  like,"  said  his  mother. 

"And  will  you  give  me  more  when  they  are 
gone  ?"  he  asked. 

His  mother  shook  her  head  and  said:  "No, 
Benjamin.  I  cannot  give  you  any  more.  So  you 
must  be  careful  not  to  spend  them  foolishly." 

The  little  fellow  ran  out  into  the  street.  He 

69 


70          THE  STORY  OF   BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

heard  the  pennies  jingle  in  his  pocket  as  he  ran. 
He  felt  as  though  he  was  very  rich. 

Boston  was  at  that  time  only  a  small  town, 
and  there  were  not  many  stores.  As  Benjamin 
ran  down  toward  the  busy  part  of  the  street,  he 
wondered  what  he  should  buy. 

Should  he  buy  candy  or  toys  ?  It  had  been  a 
long  time  since  he  had  tasted  candy.  As  for 
toys,  he  hardly  knew  what  they  were. 

If  he  had  been  the  only  child  in  the  family, 
things  might  have  been  different.  But  there 
were  fourteen  boys  and  girls  older  than  he,  and 
two  little  sisters  that  were  younger. 

It  was  as  much  as  his  father  could  do  to  earn 
food  and  clothing  for  so  many.  There  was  no 
money  to  spend  for  toys. 

Before  Benjamin  had  gone  very  far  he  met  a 
boy  blowing  a  whistle. 

'That  is  just  the  thing  that  I  want,"  he  said. 
Then  he  hurried  on  to  the  store  where  all  kinds 
of  things  were  kept  for  sale. 

"Have  you  any  good  whistles  ?"  he  asked. 

He  was  out  of  breath  from  running,  but  he 
tried  hard  to  speak  like  a  man. 


THE  WHISTLE  71 

"Yes,  plenty  of  them,"  said  the  man. 

"Well,  I  want  one,  and  I'll  give  you  all  the 
money  I  have  for  it,"  said  the  little  fellow.  He 
forgot  to  ask  the  price. 

"How  much  money  have  you  ?"  asked  the  man. 

Benjamin  took  the  coppers  from  his  pocket. 
The  man  counted  them  and  said,  "All  right,  my 
boy.  It's  a  bargain." 

Then  he  put  the  pennies  into  his  money  drawer, 
and  gave  one  of  the  whistles  to  the  boy. 

Benjamin  Franklin  was  a  proud  and  happy 
boy.  He  ran  home  as  fast  as  he  could,  blowing 
his  whistle  as  he  ran. 

His  mother  met  him  at  the  door  and  said, 
"Well,  my  child,  what  did  you  do  with  your 
pennies  ?" 

"I  bought  a  whistle  !"  he  cried.  "Just  hear 
me  blow  it  !" 

"How  much  did  you  pay  for  it  ?" 

"All  the  money  I  had." 

One  of  his  brothers  was  standing  by  and  asked 
to  see  the  whistle.  "Well,  well  !"  he  said,  "did 
you  spend  all  of  your  money  for  this  thing  ?" 

"Every  penny,"  said  Benjamin. 


72          THE  STORY  OF   BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

"Did  you  ask  the  price  ?" 

"No.  But  I  offered  them  to  the  man,  and  he 
said  it  was  all  right. " 

His  brother  laughed  and  said,  "You  are  a  very 
foolish  fellow.  You  paid  four  times  as  much  as 
it  is  worth." 

'Yes,"  said  his  mother,  "I  think  it  is  rather 
a  dear  whistle.  You  had  enough  money  to  buy 
a  whistle  and  some  candy,  too." 

The  little  boy  saw  what  a  mistake  he  had 
made.  The  whistle  did  not  please  him  any  more. 
He  threw  it  upon  the  floor,  and  began  to  cry. 
But  his  mother  took  him  upon  her  lap  and  said : 
"Never  mind,  my  child.  We  must  all  live  and 
learn ;  and  I  think  that  my  little  boy  will  be 
careful,  after  this,  not  to  pay  too  dear  for  his 
whistles." 

II.  —  SCHOOLDAYS 

When  Benjamin  Franklin  was  a  boy  there 
were  no  great  public  schools  in  Boston  as  there 
are  now.  But  he  learned  to  read  almost  as  soon 
as  he  could  talk,  and  he  was  always  fond  of  books. 

His    nine    brothers    were    older    than    he,    and 


SCHOOLDAYS  73 

every  one  had  learned   a  trade.     They  did  not 

I     care  so  much  for  books. 
"Benjamin  shall  be  the  scholar  of  our  family," 
said  his  mother. 

"Yes,  we  will  educate  him  for  a  minister,"  said 
his  father.  For  at  that  time  all  the  most  learned 
men  were  ministers. 

And  so,  when  he  was  eight  years  old,  Benja- 
min Franklin  was  sent  to  a  grammar  school, 
where  boys  were  prepared  for  college.  He  was 
a  very  apt  scholar,  and  in  a  few  months  was  pro- 
moted to  a  higher  class. 

But  the  lad  was  not  allowed  to  stay  long  in 
the  grammar  school.  His  father  was  a  poor 
man.  It  would  cost  a  great  deal  of  money  to 
give  Benjamin  a  college  education.  The  times 
were  very  hard.  The  idea  of  educating  the  boy 
for  the  ministry  had  to  be  given  up. 

In  less  than  a  year  he  was  taken  from  the 
grammar  school,  and  sent  to  another  school 
where  arithmetic  and  writing  were  taught. 

He  learned  to  write  very  well,  indeed  ;  but  he 
did  not  care  so  much  for  arithmetic,  and  so  failed 
to  do  what  was  expected  of  him. 


74          THE   STORY  OF   BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

When  he  was  ten  years  old  he  had  to  leave 
school  altogether.  His  father  needed  his  help ; 
and  though  Benjamin  was  but  a  small  boy,  there 
were  many  things  that  he  could  do. 

He  never  attended  school  again.  But  he  kept 
on  studying  and  reading ;  and  we  shall  find 
that  he  afterwards  became  the  most  learned  man 
in  America. 

Benjamin's  father  was  a  soap-boiler  and  candle- 
maker.  And  so  when  the  boy  was  taken  from 
school,  what  kind  of  work  do  you  think  he  had 
to  do  ? 

He  was  kept  busy  cutting  wicks  for  the  candles, 
pouring  the  melted  tallow  into  the  candle-moulds, 
and  selling  soap  to  his  father's  customers. 

Do  you  suppose  that  he  liked  this  business  ? 

He  did  not  like  it  at  all.  And  when  he  saw 
the  ships  sailing  in  and  out  of  Boston  harbor,  he 
longed  to  be  a  sailor  and  go  to  strange,  far-away 
lands,  where  candles  and  soap  were  unknown. 

But  his  father  would  not  listen  to  any  of  his 
talk  about  going  to  sea. 


THE   BOYS  AND  THE   WHARF  75 

III. --THE  BOYS  AND  THE  WHARF 

Busy  as  Benjamin  was  in  his  father's  shop,  he 
still  had  time  to  play  a  good  deal. 

He  was  liked  by  all  the  boys  of  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  they  looked  up  to  him  as  their  leader. 
In  all  their  games  he  was  their  captain  ;  and  noth- 
ing was  undertaken  without  asking  his  advice. 

Not  far  from  the  home  of  the  Franklins  there 
was  a  mill  pond,  where  the  boys  often  went  to 
swim.  When  the  tide  was  high  they  liked  to 
stand  at  a  certain  spot  on  the  shore  of  the  pond 
and  fish  for  minnows. 

But  the  ground  was  marshy  and  wet,  and  the 
boys'  feet  sank  deep  in  the  mud. 

"Let  us  build  a  wharf  along  the  water's  edge," 
said  Benjamin.  'Then  we  can  stand  and  fish 
with  some  comfort." 

"Agreed!"  said  the  boys.  "But  what  is  the 
wharf  to  be  made  of  ?" 

Benjamin  pointed  to  a  heap  of  stones  that  lay 
not  far  away.  They  had  been  hauled  there  only 
a  few  days  before,  and  were  to  be  used  in  build- 
ing a  new  house  near  the  mill  pond. 


76          THE  STORY  OF   BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

The  boys  needed  only  a  hint.  Soon  they  were 
as  busy  as  ants,  dragging  the  stones  to  the  water's 
edge. 

Before  it  was  fully  dark  that  evening,  they  had 
built  a  nice  stone  wharf  on  which  they  could 
stand  and  fish  without  danger  of  sinking  in  the 
mud. 

The  next  morning  the  workmen  came  to  begin 
the  building  of  the  house.  They  were  surprised 
to  find  all  the  stones  gone  from  the  place  where 
they  had  been  thrown.  But  the  tracks  of  the 
boys  in  the  mud  told  the  story. 

It  was  easy  enough  to  find  out  who  had  done  the 
mischief. 

When  the  boys'  fathers  were  told  of  the  trouble 
which  they  had  caused,  you  may  imagine  what 
they  did. 

Young  Benjamin  Franklin  tried  hard  to  ex- 
plain that  a  wharf  on  the  edge  of  the  mill  pond 
was  a  public  necessity. 

His  father  would  not  listen  to  him.  He  said, 
"My  son,  nothing  can  ever  be  truly  useful  which 
is  not  at  the  same  time  truly  honest." 

And  Benjamin  never  forgot  this  lesson. 


CHOOSING  A  TRADE  77 

IV.  —  CHOOSING  A  TRADE 
* 

As  I  have  already  said,  young  Benjamin  did 
not  like  the  work  which  he  had  to  do  in  his 
father's  shop. 

His  father  was  not  very  fond  of  the  trade  him- 
self, and  so  he  could  not  blame  the  boy.  One 
day  he  said  : 

"Benjamin,  since  you  have  made  up  your 
mind  not  to  be  a  candle-maker,  what  trade  do 
you  think  you  would  like  to  learn  ?" 

"You  know  I  would  like  to  be  a  sailor,"  said 
the  boy. 

"But  you  shall  not  be  a  sailor,"  said  his  father. 
"I  intend  that  you  shall  learn  some  useful  busi- 
ness on  land  ;  and,  of  course,  you  will  succeed 
best  in  that  kind  of  business  which  is  most  pleas- 
ant to  you." 

The  next  day  he  took  the  boy  to  walk  with 
him  among  the  shops  of  Boston.  They  saw 
all  kinds  of  workmen  busy  at  their  various 
trades. 

Benjamin  was  delighted.  Long  afterwards, 
when  he  had  become  a  very  great  man,  he  said, 


78           THE  STORY  OF   BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

"It  has  ever  since  been  a  pleasure  to  me  to  see 
good  workmen  handle  their  tools." 

He  gave  up  the  thought  of  going  to  sea,  and 
said  that  he  would  learn  any  trade  that  his  father 
would  choose  for  him. 

His  father  thought  that  the  cutler's  trade  was 
a  good  one.  His  cousin,  Samuel  Franklin,  had 
just  set  up  a  cutler's  shop  in  Boston,  and  he 
agreed  to  take  Benjamin  a  few  days  on  trial. 

Benjamin  was  pleased  with  the  idea  of  learn- 
ing how  to  make  knives  and  scissors  and  razors 
and  all  other  kinds  of  cutting  tools.  But  his  cousin 
wanted  so  much  money  for  teaching  him  the  trade 
that  his  father  could  not  afford  it ;  and  so  the  lad 
was  taken  back  to  the  candle-maker's  shop. 

Soon  after  this,  Benjamin's  brother,  James 
Franklin,  set  up  a  printing  press  in  Boston.  He 
intended  to  print  and  publish  books  and  a  news- 
paper. 

"Benjamin  loves  books,"  said  his  father.  "He 
shall  learn  to  be  a  printer." 

And  so,  when  he  was  twelve  years  old,  he  was 
bound  to  his  brother  to  learn  the  printer's  trade. 
He  was  to  stay  with  him  until  he  was  twenty- 


HOW  FRANKLIN  EDUCATED    HIMSELF  79 

one.  He  was  to  have  his  board  and  clothing  and 
no  other  wages,  except  during  the  last  year.  I 
suppose  that  during  the  last  year  he  was  to  be 
paid  the  same  as  any  other  workman. 

V. --How  FRANKLIN  EDUCATED  HIMSELF 

When  Benjamin  Franklin  was  a  boy  thr^e 
were  no  books  for  children.  Yet  he  spent  most 
of  his  spare  time  in  reading. 

His  father's  books  were  not  easy  to  under- 
stand. People  nowadays  would  think  them  very 
dull  and  heavy. 

But  before  he  was  twelve  years  old,  Benjamin 
had  read  the  most  of  them.  He  read  everything 
that  he  could  get. 

After  he  went  to  work  for  his  brother  he 
found  it  easier  to  obtain  good  books.  Often  he 
would  borrow  a  book  in  the  evening,  and  then 
sit  up  nearly  all  night  reading  it  so  as  to  return 
it  in  the  morning. 

When  the  owners  of  books  found  that  he  al- 
ways returned  them  soon  and  clean,  they  were 
very  willing  to  lend  him  whatever  he  wished. 

He  was  about  fourteen  years  of  age  when  he 


HOW  FRANKLIN  EDUCATED  HIMSELF          Si 

began  to  study  how  to  write  clearly  and  correctly. 
He  afterwards  told  how  he  did  this.  He  said : 

"About  this  time  I  met  with  an  odd  volume 
of  the  Spectator.  I  had  never  before  seen  any 
of  them. 

"I  bought  it,  read  it  over  and  over,  and  was 
much  delighted  with  it. 

"I  thought  the  writing  excellent,  and  wished 
if  possible  to  imitate  it. 

"With  that  view,  I  took  some  of  the  papers, 
and  making  short  hints  of  the  sentiments  in  each 
sentence,  laid  them  by  a  few  days,  and  then, 
without  looking  at  the  book,  tried  to  complete 
the  papers  again,  by  expressing  each  hinted  sen- 
timent at  length  and  as  fully  as  it  had  been  ex- 
pressed before,  in  any  suitable  words  that  should 
occur  to  me. 

'Then  I  compared  my  Spectator  with  the  orig- 
inal, discovered  some  of  my  faults  and  corrected 
them. 

"  But  I  found  that  I  wanted  a  stock  of  words, 
or  a  readiness  in  recollecting  and  using  them. 

'Therefore  I  took  some  of  the  tales  in  the 
Spectator  and  turned  them  into  verse  ;  and,  after 


82  THE   STORY  OF   BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

a  time,  when  I  had  pretty  well  forgotten  the 
prose,  turned  them  back  again." 

About  this  time  his  brother  began  to  publish  a 
newspaper. 

It  was  the  fourth  newspaper  published  in 
America,  and  was  called  the  New  England 
Courant. 

People  said  that  it  was  a  foolish  undertaking. 
They  said  that  one  newspaper  was  enough  for 
this  country,  and  that  there  would  be  but  little 
demand  for  more. 

In  those  days  editors  did  not  dare  to  write 
freely  about  public  affairs.  It  was  dangerous  to 
criticise  men  who  were  in  power. 

James  Franklin  published  something  in  the 
New  England  Courant  about  the  lawmakers  of 
Massachusetts.  It  made  the  lawmakers  very 
angry.  They  caused  James  Franklin  to  be  shut 
up  in  prison  for  a  month,  and  they  ordered  that 
he  should  no  longer  print  the  newspaper  called 
the  New  England  Courant. 

But,  in  spite  of  this  order,  the  newspaper  was 
printed  every  week  as  before.  It  was  printed, 
however,  in  the  name  of  Benjamin  Franklin. 


FAREWELL  TO   BOSTON  83 

For  several  years  it  bore  his  name  as  editor  and 
publisher. 

VI.  —  FAREWELL  TO  BOSTON 

Benjamin  Franklin  did  not  have  a  very  happy 
life  with  his  brother  James. 

His  brother  was  a  hard  master,  and  was  al- 
ways finding  fault  with  his  workmen.  Some- 
times he  would  beat  young  Benjamin  and  abuse 
him  without  cause. 

When  Benjamin  was  nearly  seventeen  years 
old  he  made  up  his  mind  that  he  would  not  en- 
dure this  treatment  any  longer. 

He  told  his  brother  that  he  would  leave  him 
and  find  work  with  some  one  else. 

When  his  brother  learned  that  he  really  meant 
to  do  this,  he  went  round  to  all  the  other  printers 
in  Boston  and  persuaded  them  not  to  give  Ben- 
jamin any  work. 

The  father  took  James's  part,  and  scolded 
Benjamin  for  being  so  saucy  and  so  hard  to  please. 
But  Benjamin  would  not  go  back  to  James's 
printing  house. 

He  made  up  his  mind  that  since  he  could  not 


84          THE  STORY  OF   BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

find  work  in  Boston  he  would  run  away  from  his 
home.  He  would  go  to  New  York  and  look  for 
work  there. 

He  sold  his  books  to  raise  a  little  money. 
Then,  without  saying  good-bye  to  his  father  or 
mother  or  any  of  his  brothers  or  sisters,  he 
went  on  board  a  ship  that  was  just  ready  to  sail 
from  the  harbor. 

It  is  not  likely  that  he  was  very  happy  while 
doing  this.  Long  afterwards  he  said:  "I  reckon 
this  as  one  of  the  first  errata  of  my  life." 

What  did  he  mean  by  errata? 

Errata  are  mistakes  —  mistake?  that  cannot 
easily  be  corrected. 

Three  days  after  leaving  Boston,  young  Frank- 
lin found  himself  in  New  York.  It  was  then 
October,  in  the  year  1723. 

The  lad  had  but  very  little  money  in  his  pocket. 
There  was  no  one  in  New  York  that  he  knew.  He 
was  three  hundred  miles  from  home  and  friends. 

As  soon  as  he  landed  he  went  about  the  streets 
looking  for  work. 

New  York  was  only  a  little  town  then,  and 
there  was  not  a  newspaper  in  it.  There  were 


THE   FIRST  DAY  IN  PHILADELPHIA  85 

but  a  few  printing  houses  there,  and  these  had 
not  much  work  to  do.  The  boy  from  Boston 
called  at  every  place,  but  he  found  that  nobody 
wanted  to  employ  any  more  help. 

At  one  of  the  little  printing  houses  Franklin 
was  told  that  perhaps  he  could  find  work  in  Phil- 
adelphia, which  was  at  that  time  a  much  more 
important  place  than  New  York. 

Philadelphia  was  one  hundred  miles  farther 
from  home.  One  hundred  miles  was  a  long  dis- 
tance in  those  days. 

But  Franklin  made  up  his  mind  to  go  there 
without  delay.  It  would  be  easier  to  do  this 
than  to  give  up  and  try  to  return  to  Boston. 

VII. --THE  FIRST  DAY  IN  PHILADELPHIA 

There  are  two  ways  of  going  from  New  York 
to  Philadelphia. 

One  way  is  by  the  sea.  The  other  is  by  land, 
across  the  state  of  New  Jersey. 

As  Franklin  had  but  little  money,  he  took  the 
shorter  route  by  land  ;  but  he  sent  his  little  chest, 
containing  his  Sunday  clothes,  round  by  sea,  in 
a  boat. 


86          THE  STORY  OF   BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

He  walked  all  the  way  from  Perth  Amboy,  on 
the  eastern  shore  of  New  Jersey,  to  Burlington, 
on  the  Delaware  River. 

Nowadays  you  may  travel  that  distance  in 
an  hour,  for  it  is  only  about  fifty  miles. 

But  there  were  no  railroads  at  that  time  ;  and 
Franklin  was  nearly  three  days  trudging  along 
lonely  wagon-tracks,  in  the  midst  of  a  pouring  rain. 

At  Burlington  he  was  lucky  enough  to  be 
taken  on  board  a  small  boat  that  was  going  down 
the  river. 

Burlington  is  only  twenty  miles  above  Phila- 
delphia. But  the  boat  moved  very  slowly,  and 
as  there  was  no  wind,  the  men  took  turns  at 
rowing. 

Night  came  on,  and  they  were  afraid  that  they 
might  pass  by  Philadelphia  in  the  darkness.  So 
they  landed,  and  camped  on  shore  till  morning. 

Early  the  next  day  they  reached  Philadelphia, 
and  Benjamin  Franklin  stepped  on  shore  at  the 
foot  of  Market  Street,  where  the  Camden  ferry- 
boats now  land. 

No  one  who  saw  him  could  have  guessed  that 
he  would  one  day  be  the  greatest  man  in  the  city. 


THE   FIRST  DAY   IN  PHILADELPHIA  87 

He  was  a  sorry-looking  fellow. 

He  was  dressed  in  his  working  clothes,  and 
was  very  dirty  from  being  so  long  on  the  road 
and  in  the  little  boat. 

His  pockets  were  stuffed  out  with  shirts  and 
stockings,  and  all  the  money  that  he  had  was  not 
more  than  a  dollar. 

He  was  hungry  and  tired.  He  had  not  a  single 
friend.  He  did  not  know  of  any  place  where  he 
could  look  for  lodging. 

It  was  Sunday  morning. 

He  went  a  little  way  up  the  street,  and  looked 
around  him. 

A  boy  was  coming  down,  carrying  a  basket  of 
bread. 

"My  young  friend,"  said  Franklin,  "where  did 
you  get  that  bread  ?" 

"At  the  baker's,"  said  the  boy. 

"And  where  is  the  baker's  ?" 

The  boy  showed  him  the  little  baker  shop  just 
around  the  corner. 

Young  Franklin  was  so  hungry  that  he  could 
hardly  wait.  He  hurried  into  the  shop  and  asked 
for  three-penny  worth  of  bread. 


88           THE   STORY  OF   BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

The  baker  gave  him  three  great,  puffy  rolls. 

Franklin  had  not  expected  to  get  so  much,  but 
he  took  the  rolls  and  walked  out. 

His  pockets  were  already  full,  and  so,  while  he 
ate  one  roll,  he  held  the  others  under  his  arms. 

As  he  went  up  Market  Street,  eating  his  roll,  a 
young  girl  stood  in  a  doorway  laughing  at  him. 
He  was,  indeed,  a  very  funny-looking  fellow. 

The  girl's  name  was  Deborah  Read.  A  few 
years  after  that,  she  became  the  wife  of  Benjamin 
Franklin. 

Hungry  as  he  was,  Franklin  found  that  he 
could  eat  but  one  of  the  rolls,  and  so  he  gave  the 
other  two  to  a  poor  woman  who  had  come  down 
the  river  in  the  same  boat  with  him. 

As  he  was  strolling  along  the  street  he  came 
to  a  Quaker  meetinghouse. 

The  door  was  open,  and  many  people  were  sit- 
ting quietly  inside.  The  seats  looked  inviting, 
and  so  Franklin  walked  in  and  sat  down. 

The  day  was  warm ;  the  people  in  the  house 
were  very  still ;  Franklin  was  tired.  In  a  few 
minutes  he  was  sound  asleep. 

And  so  it  was  in  a  Quaker  meetinghouse  that 


GOVERNOR  WILLIAM   KEITH  89 

Berijartlin  Franklin  found  the  first  shelter  and 
rest  in  Philadelphia. 

Later  in  the  day,  as  Franklin  was  strolling 
toward  the  river,  he  met  a  young  man  whose 
honest  face  was  very  pleasing  to  him. 

"My  friend,"  he  said,  "can  you  tell  me  of  any 
house  where  they  lodge  strangers  ?" 

:<Yes,"  said  the  young  man,  "there  is  a  house 
on  this  very  street ;  but  it  is  not  a  place  I  can 
recommend.  If  thee  will  come  with  me  I  will 
show  thee  a  better  one." 

Franklin  walked  with  him  to  a  house  on  Water 
Street,  and  there  he  found  lodging  for  the  night. 

And  so  ended  his  first  day  in  Philadelphia. 

VIII.  —  GOVERNOR  WILLIAM  KEITH 

Franklin  soon  obtained  work  in  a  printing 
house  owned  by  a  man  named  Keimer. 

He  found  a  boarding  place  in  the  house  of  Mr. 
'Read,  the  father  of  the  girl  who  had  laughed  at 
him  with  his  three  rolls. 

He  was  only  seventeen  years  old,  and  he  soon 
became  acquainted  with  several  young  people  in 
the  town  who  loved  books. 


90  THE   STORY  OF   BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

In  a  little  while  he  began  to  lay  up  money, 
and  he  tried  to  forget  his  old  home  in  Boston  as 
much  as  he  could. 

One  day  a  letter  came  to  Philadelphia  for  Ben- 
jamin Franklin. 

It  was  from  Captain  Robert  Holmes,  a  brother- 
in-law  of  Franklin's. 

Captain  Holmes  was  the  master  of  a  trading 
sloop  that  sailed  between  Boston  and  Delaware 
Bay.  While  he  was  loading  his  vessel  at  New- 
castle, forty  miles  below  Philadelphia,  he  had 
happened  to  hear  about  the  young  man  Franklin 
who  had  lately  come  from  Boston. 

He  sat  down  at  once  and  wrote  a  letter  to  the 
young  man.  He  told  him  how  his  parents  and 
friends  were  grieving  for  him  in  Boston.  He 
begged  him  to  go  back  home,  and  said  that  every- 
thing would  be  made  right  if  he  would  do  so. 

When  Franklin  read  this  letter  he  felt  very 
sad  to  think  of  the  pain  and  distress  which  he 
had  caused. 

But  he  did  not  want  to  return  to  Boston.  He 
felt  that  he  had  been  badly  treated  by  his  brother, 
and,  therefore,  that  he  was  not  the  only  one  to 


GOVERNOR  WILLIAM   KEITH  91 

be  blamed.  He  believed  that  he  could  do  much 
better  in  Philadelphia  than  anywhere  else. 

So  he  sat  down  and  wrote  an  answer  to  Cap- 
tain Holmes.  He  wrote  it  with  great  care,  and 
sent  it  off  to  Newcastle  by  the  first  boat  that  was 
going  that  way. 

Now  it  so  happened  that  Sir  William  Keith, 
the  governor  of  the  province,  was  at  Newcastle 
at  that  very  time.  He  was  with  Captain  Holmes 
when  the  letter  came  to  hand. 

When  Captain  Holmes  had  read  the  letter  he  was 
so  pleased  with  it  that  he  showed  it  to  the  governor. 

Governor  Keith  read  it  and  was  surprised  when 
he  learned  that  its  writer  was  a  lad  only  seventeen 
years  old. 

"He  is  a  young  man  of  great  promise,"  he 
said  ;  "and  he  must  be  encouraged.  The  printers 
in  Philadelphia  know  nothing  about  their  busi- 
ness. If  young  Franklin  will  stay  there  and  set 
up  a  press,  I  will  do  a  great  deal  for  him." 

One  day  not  long  after  that,  when  Franklin 
was  at  work  in  Keimer's  printing-office,  the  gov- 
ernor came  to  see  him.  Franklin  was  very  much 
surprised. 


92          THE  STORY  OF   BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

The  governor  offered  to  set  him  up  in  a  busi- 
ness of  his  own.  He  promised  that  he  should 
have  all  the  public  printing  in  the  province. 

"But  you  will  have  to  go  to  England  to  buy 
your  types  and  whatever  else  you  may  need." 

Franklin  agreed  to  do  this.  But  he  must  first 
return  to  Boston  and  get  his  father's  consent  and 
assistance. 

The  governor  gave  him  a  letter  to  carry  to  his 
father.  In  a  few  weeks  he  was  on  his  way  home. 

You  may  believe  that  Benjamin's  father  and 
mother  were  glad  to  see  him.  He  had  been  gone 
seven  months,  and  in  all  that  time  they  had  not 
heard  a  word  from  him. 

His  brothers  and  sisters  were  glad  to  see  him, 
too  —  all  but  the  printer,  James,  who  treated 
him  very  unkindly. 

His  father  read  the  governor's  letter,  and  then 
shook  his  head. 

"What  kind  of  a  man  is  this  Governor  Keith  ?" 
he  asked.  "He  must  have  but  little  judgment 
to  think  of  setting  up  a  mere  boy  in  business  of 
this  kind." 

After  that  he  wrote  a  letter  of  thanks  to  the 


THE   RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA  93 

governor.  He  said  that  he  was  grateful  for  the 
kindness  he  had  shown  to  his  son,  and  for  his 
offer  to  help  him.  But  he  thought  that  Benjamin 
was  still  too  young  to  be  trusted  with  so  great  a 
business,  and  therefore  he  would  not  consent  to 
him  undertaking  it.  As  for  helping  him,  that  he 
could  not  do ;  for  he  had  but  little  more  money 
than  was  needed  to  carry  on  his  own  affairs. 

IX.  -  -  THE  RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA 

Benjamin  Franklin  felt  much  disappointed 
when  his  father  refused  to  help  send  him  to  Eng- 
land. But  he  was  not  discouraged. 

In  a  few  weeks  he  was  ready  to  return  to  Phila- 
delphia. This  time  he  did  not  have  to  run  away 
from  home. 

His  father  blessed  him,  and  his  mother  gave 
him  many  small  gifts  as  tokens  of  her  love. 

"Be  diligent,"  said  his  father,  "attend  well  to 
your  business,  and  save  your  money  carefully, 
and,  perhaps,  by  the  time  you  are  twenty-one 
years  old,  you  will  be  able  to  set  up  for  yourself 
without  the  governor's  help." 

All  the  family,  except  James  the  printer,  bade 


94          THE  STORY  OF   BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

him  a  kind  good-bye,  as  he  went  on  board  the 
little  ship  that  was  to  take  him  as  far  as  New 
York. 

There  was  another  surprise  for  him  when  he 
reached  New  York. 

The  governor  of  New  York  had  heard  that 
there  was  a  young  man  from  Boston  on  board 
the  ship,  and  that  he  had  a  great  many  books. 

There  were  no  large  libraries  in  New  York  at 
that  time.  There  were  no  bookstores,  and  but 
few  people  who  cared  for  books. 

So  the  governor  sent  for  Franklin  to  come  and 
see  him.  He  showed  him  his  own  library,  and 
they  had  a  long  talk  about  books  and  authors. 

This  was  the  second  governor  that  had  taken 
notice  of  Benjamin.  For  a  poor  boy,  like  him, 
it  was  a  great  honor,  and  very  pleasing. 

When  he  arrived  in  Philadelphia  he  gave  to 
Governor  Keith  the  letter  which  his  father  had 
written. 

The  governor  was  not  very  well  pleased.  He 
said  : 

:<Your  father  is  too  careful.  There  is  a  great 
difference  in  persons.  Young  men  can  some- 


THE  RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA  95 

times  be  trusted  with  great  undertakings  as 
well  as  if  they  were  older." 

He  then  said  that  he  would  set  Franklin  up  in 
business  without  his  father's  help. 

"Give  me  a  list  of  everything  needed  in  a  first- 
class  printing-office.  I  will  see  that  you  are  prop- 
erly fitted  out." 

Franklin  was  delighted.  He  thought  that 
Governor  Keith  was  one  of  the  best  men  in  the 
world. 

In  a  few  days  he  laid  before  the  governor  a 
list  of  the  things  needed  in  a  little  printing-office. 

The  cost  of  the  outfit  would  be  about  five 
hundred  dollars. 

The  governor  was  pleased  with  the  list.  There 
were  no  type-foundries  in  America  at  that  time. 
There  was  no  place  where  printing-presses  were 
made.  Everything  had  to  be  bought  in  England. 

The  governor  said,  "Don't  you  think  it  would 
be  better  if  you  could  go  to  England  and  choose 
the  types  for  yourself,  and  see  that  everything 
is  just  as  you  would  like  to  have  it  ?" 

:<Yes,  sir,"  said  Franklin,  "I  think  that  would 
be  a  great  advantage." 


96          THE   STORY  OF   BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

"Well,  then,"  said  the  governor,  "get  yourself 
ready  to  go  on  the  next  regular  ship  to  London. 
It  shall  be  at  my  expense." 

At  that  time  there  was  only  one  ship  that 
made  regular  trips  from  Philadelphia  to  Eng- 
land, and  it  sailed  but  once  each  year. 

The  name  of  this  ship  was  the  Annis.  It  would 
not  be  ready  to  sail  again  for  several  months. 

And  so  young  Franklin,  while  he  was  getting 
ready  for  the  voyage,  kept  on  working  in  Mr. 
Keimer's  little  printing-office. 

He  laid  up  money  enough  to  pay  for  his  pas- 
sage. He  did  not  want  to  be  dependent  upon 
Governor  Keith  for  everything ;  and  it  was  well 
that  he  did  not. 

X.  —  THE  FIRST  VISIT  TO  ENGLAND 

At  last  the  Annis  was  ready  to  sail. 

Governor  Keith  had  promised  to  give  to  young 
Franklin  letters  of  introduction  to  some  of  his 
friends  in  England. 

He  had  also  promised  to  give  him  money  to 
buy  his  presses  and  type. 

But   when    Franklin    called    at    the   governor's 


THE   FIRST  VISIT  TO  ENGLAND  97 

house  to  bid  him  good-bye,  and  to  get  the  letters, 
the  governor  was  too  busy  to  see  him.  He  said 
that  he  would  send  the  letters  and  the  money  to 
him  on  shipboard. 

The  ship  sailed. 

But  no  letters,  nor  any  word  from  Governor 
Keith,  had  been  sent  to  Franklin. 

When  he  at  last  arrived  in  London  he  found 
himself  without  money  and  without  friends. 

Governor  Keith  had  given  him  nothing  but 
promises.  He  would  never  give  him  anything 
more.  He  was  a  man  whose  word  was  not  to  be 
depended  upon. 

Franklin  was  then  just  eighteen  years  old. 
He  must  now  depend  wholly  upon  himself.  He 
must  make  his  own  way  in  the  world,  without 
aid  from  anyone. 

He  went  out  at  once  to  look  for  work.  He 
found  employment  in  a  printing-office,  and  there 
he  stayed  for  nearly  a  year.  • 

Franklin  made  many  acquaintances  with  liter- 
ary people  while  he  was  in  London. 

He  proved  himself  to  be  a  young  man  of  talent 
and  ingenuity.  He  was  never  idle. 


98          THE  STORY  OF   BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

His  companions  in  the  printing-office  were 
beer-drinkers  and  sots.  He  often  told  them  how 
foolish  they  were  to  spend  their  money  and  ruin 
themselves  for  drink. 

He  drank  nothing  but  water.  He  was  strong 
and  active.  He  could  carry  more,  and  do  more 
work,  than  any  of  them. 

He  persuaded  many  of  them  to  leave  off  drink- 
ing, and  to  lead  better  lives. 

Franklin  was  also  a  fine  swimmer.  There  was 
no  one  in  London  who  could  swim  as  well.  He 
wrote  two  essays  on  swimming  and  made  some 
plans  for  opening  a  swimming  school. 

When  he  had  been  in  London  about  a  year,  he 
met  a  Mr.  Denham,  a  merchant  of  Philadelphia, 
and  a  strong  friendship  sprang  up  between  them. 

Mr.  Denham  at  last  persuaded  Franklin  to  re- 
turn to  Philadelphia,  and  be  a  clerk  in  his  dry- 
goods  store. 

And  so,  on  the  23rd  of  the  next  July,  he  set 
sail  for  home.  The  ship  was  nearly  three  months 
in  making  the  voyage,  and  it  was  not  until  Octo- 
ber that  he  again  set  foot  in  Philadelphia. 


A  LEADING   MAN  IN   PHILADELPHIA  99 

XI. — A  LEADING  MAN  IN  PHILADELPHIA 

When  Franklin  was  twenty-four  years  old  he 
was  married  to  Miss  Deborah  Read,  the  young 
lady  who  had  laughed  at  him  when  he  was  walk- 
ing the  street  with  his  three  rolls. 

They  lived  together  very  happily  for  a  great 
many  years. 

Some  time  before  this  marriage,  Franklin's 
friend  and  employer,  Mr.  Denham,  had  died. 

The  dry-goods  store,  of  which  he  was  the 
owner,  had  been  sold,  and  Franklin's  occupation 
as  a  salesman,  or  clerk,  was  gone.  But  the  young 
man  had  shown  himself  to  be  a  person  of  great 
industry  and  ability.  He  had  the  confidence  of 
everybody  that  knew  him. 

A  friend  of  his,  who  had  money,  offered  to 
take  him  as  a  partner  in  the  newspaper  business. 
And  so  he  again  became  a  printer,  and  the  .editor 
of  a  paper  called  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette. 

It  was  not  long  until  Franklin  was  recognized 
as  one  of  the  leading  men  in  Philadelphia.  His 
name  was  known,  not  only  in  Pennsylvania,  but 
in  all  the  colonies. 


100        THE  STORY  OF   BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

He  was  all  the  time  thinking  of  plans  for  mak- 
ing the  people  about  him  wiser  and  better  and 
happier. 

He  established  a  subscription  and  circulating 
library,  the  first  in  America.  This  library  was 
the  beginning  of  the  present  Philadelphia  Public 
Library. 

He  wrote  papers  on  education.  He  founded 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  He  organized 
the  American  Philosophical  Society.. 

He  established  the  first  fire  company  in  Phila- 
delphia, which  was  also  the  first  in  America. 

He  invented  a  copper-plate  press,  and  printed 
the  first  paper  money  of  New  Jersey. 

He  also  invented  the  iron  fireplace,  which  is 
called  the  Franklin  stove,  and  is  still  used  where 
wood  is  plentiful  and  cheap. 

After  an  absence  of  ten  years,  he  paid  a  visit 
to  his  old  home  in  Boston.  Everybody  was  glad 
to  see  him  now,  —  even  his  brother  James,  the 
printer. 

When  he  returned  to  Philadelphia,  he  was 
elected  clerk  of  the  colonial  assembly. 

Not  long  after  that,  he  was  chosen  to  be  post- 


FRANKLIN'S   RULES  OF  LIFE  101 

master  of  the  city.  But  his  duties  in  this  capac- 
ity did  not  require  very  much  labor  in  those 
times. 

He  did  not  handle  as  much  mail  in  a  whole 
year  as  passes  now  through  the  Philadelphia 
post-office  in  a  single  hour. 

XII.  --  FRANKLIN'S  RULES  OF  LIFE 

Here  are  some  of  the  rules  of  life  which 
Franklin  made  for  himself  when  he  was  a  very 
young  man  : 

1.  To  live  very  frugally  till  he   had   paid   all 
that  he  owed. 

2.  To  speak  the  truth  at  all  times ;    to  be  sin- 
cere in  word  and  action. 

3.  To    apply    himself    earnestly    to    whatever 
business  he  took  in  hand  ;   and  to  shun  all  foolish 
projects   for  becoming  suddenly  rich.     "For  in- 
dustry and   patience,"   he   said,   "are  the   surest 
means  of  plenty." 

4.  To  speak  ill  of  no  man  whatever,  not  even 
in  a  matter  of  truth ;    but  to  speak  all  the  good 
he  knew  of  everybody. 

When   he  was   twenty-six  years   old,   he   pub- 


102        THE   STORY  OF   BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

lished  the  first  number  of  an  almanac  called  Poor 
Richard's  Almanac. 

This  almanac  was  full  of  wise  and  witty  say- 
ings, and  everybody  soon  began  to  talk  about  it. 

Every  year,  for  twenty-five  years,  a  new  num- 
ber of  Poor  Richard's  Almanac  was  printed.  It 
was  sold  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  People 
who  had  no  other  books  would  buy  and  read 
Poor  Richard's  Almanac.  The  library  of  many  a 
farmer  consisted  of  only  the  family  Bible  with 
one  or  more  numbers  of  this  famous  almanac. 

Here  are  a  few  of  Poor  Richard's  sayings  : 

"A  word  to  the  wise  is  enough." 

"God  helps  them  that  help  themselves." 

"  Early  to  bed  and  early  to  rise, 
Makes  a  man  healthy,  wealthy,  and  wise." 

'There  are  no  gains  without  pains." 

"Plow  deep  while  sluggards  sleep, 
And  you  shall  have  corn  to  sell  and  to  keep." 

"One  to-day  is  worth  two  to-morrows." 

"Little  strokes  fell  great  oaks." 

"  Keep  thy  shop  and  thy  shop  will  keep  thee." 

'The  sleeping  fox  catches  no  poultry." 

"Diligence  is  the  mother  of  good  luck." 


FRANKLIN'S   RULES  OF   LIFE  103 

"Constant  dropping  wears  away  stones." 

"A  small  leak  will  sink  a  great  ship." 

"Who  dainties  love  shall  beggars  prove." 

"Creditors  have  better  memories  than  debtors." 

"Many  a  little  makes  a  mickle." 

"Fools  make  feasts  and  wise  men  eat  them." 

"Many    have    been    ruined    by    buying    good 

pennyworths." 

"Rather  go  to  bed  supperless  than  rise  in  debt." 
"  For  age  and  want  save  while  you  may ; 

No  morning  sun  lasts  the  whole  day." 
It  is  pleasant  to  know  that  Franklin  observed 

the  rules  of  life  which  he  made.     And  his  wife, 

Deborah,  was  as  busy  and  as  frugal  as  himself. 
They  kept   no   idle   servants.     Their  furniture 

was  of  the  cheapest  sort.     Their  food  was  plain 

and  simple. 

Franklin's  breakfast,  for  many  years,  was  only 

bread  and  milk ;   and  he  ate  it  out  of  a  two-penny 

earthen  bowl  with  a  pewter  spoon. 

But  at  last,  when  he  was  called  one  morning  to 

breakfast,  he  found  his  milk  in  a  china  bowl ;   and 

by  the  side  of  the  bowl  there  was  a  silver  spoon. 
His  wife  had  bought  them  for  him  as  a  sur- 


104        THE  STORY  OF   BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

prise.  She  said  that  she  thought  her  husband 
deserved  a  silver  spoon  and  china  bowl  as  well 
as  any  of  his  neighbors. 

XIII.  --  FRANKLIN'S  SERVICES  TO  THE  COLONIES 

And  so,  as  you  have  seen,  Benjamin  Franklin 
became  in  time  one  of  the  foremost  men  in  our 
country. 

In  1753,  when  he  was  forty-five  years  old,  he 
was  made  deputy  postmaster-general  for  America. 

He  was  to  have  a  salary  of  about  $3,000  a 
year,  and  was  to  pay  his  own  assistants. 

People  were  astonished  when  he  proposed  to 
have  the  mail  carried  regularly  once  every  week 
between  New  York  and  Boston. 

Letters  starting  from  Philadelphia  on  Monday 
morning  would  reach  Boston  the  next  Saturday 
night.  This  was  thought  to  be  a  wonderful 
and  almost  impossible  feat.  But  nowadays, 
letters  leaving  Philadelphia  at  midnight  are  read 
at  the  breakfast  tables  in  Boston  the  next  morning. 

At  that  time  there  were  not  seventy  post-offices 
in  the  whole  country.  There  are  now  more  than 
seventy  thousand. 


FRANKLIN'S   SERVICES  TO  THE  COLONIES      105 

Benjamin  Franklin  held  the  office  of  deputy 
postmaster-general  for  the  American  colonies  for 
twenty-one  years. 

In  1754  there  was  a  meeting  of  the  leading 
men  of  all  the  colonies  at  Albany.  There  were 
fears  of  a  war  with  the  French  and  Indians  of 
Canada,  and  the  colonies  had  sent  these  men  to 
plan  some  means  of  defence. 

Benjamin  Franklin  was  one  of  the  men  from 
Pennsylvania  at  this  meeting. 

He  presented  a  plan  for  the  union  of  the  col- 
onies, and  it  was  adopted.  But  our  English 
rulers  said  it  was  too  democratic,  and  refused  to 
let  it  go  into  operation. 

This  scheme  of  Franklin's  set  the  people  of  the 
colonies  to  thinking.  Why  should  the  colonies 
not  unite  ?  Why  should  they  not  help  one 
another,  and  thus  form  one  great  country  ? 

And  so,  we  may  truthfully  say  that  it  was 
Benjamin  Franklin  who  first  put  into  men's 
minds  the  idea  of  the  great  Union  which  we  now 
call  the  United  States  of  America. 

The  people  of  the  colonies  were  not  happy 
under  the  rule  of  the  English.  One  by  one,  laws 


106       THE   STORY  OF   BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

were  made  which  they  looked  upon  as  oppressive 
and  burdensome.  These  laws  were  not  intended 
to  benefit  the  American  people,  but  were  de- 
signed to  enrich  the  merchants  and  politicians  of 
England. 

In  1757  the  people  of  Pennsylvania,  Massachu- 
setts, Maryland,  and  Georgia,  decided  to  send 
some  one  to  England  to  petition  against  these 
oppressions. 

In  all  the  colonies  there  was  no  man  better 
fitted  for  this  business  than  Benjamin  Franklin. 
And  so  he  was  the  man  sent. 

The  fame  of  the  great  American  had  gone  be- 
fore him.  Everybody  seemed  anxious  to  do  him 
honor. 

He  met  many  of  the  leading  men  of  the  day, 
and  he  at  last  succeeded  in  gaining  the  object  of 
his  mission. 

But  such  business  moved  slowly  in  those  times. 
I  Five  years  passed  before  he  was  ready  to  return 
to  America. 

He  reached  Philadelphia  in  November,  1762, 
and  the  colonial  assembly  of  Pennsylvania 
thanked  him  publicly  for  his  great  services. 


FRANKLIN'S   SERVICES   TO  THE  COLONIES      107 

But  new  troubles  soon  came  up  between  the 
colonies  and  the  government  in  England.  Other 
laws  were  passed,  more  oppressive  than  before. 

It  was  proposed  to  tax  the  colonies,  and  to 
force  the  colonists  to  buy  stamped  paper.  This 
last  act  was  called  the  Stamp  Tax,  and  the  Ameri- 
can people  opposed  it  with  all  their  might. 

Scarcely  had  Franklin  been  at  home  two  years 
when  he  was  again  sent  to  England  to  plead  the 
cause  of  his  countrymen. 

This  time  he  remained  abroad  for  more  than 
ten  years  ;  but  he  was  not  so  successful  as  before. 

In  1774  he  appeared  before  the  king's  council  to 
present  a  petition  from  the  people  of  Massachusetts. 

He  was  now  a  venerable  man  nearly  seventy 
years  of  age.  He  was  the  most  famous  man  of 
America. 

His  petition  was  rejected.  He  himself  was 
shamefully  insulted  and  abused  by  one  of  the 
members  of  the  council.  The  next  day  he  was 
dismissed  from  the  office  of  deputy  postmaster- 
general  of  America. 

In  May,  1775,  he  was  again  at  home  in  Phila- 
delphia. 


108        THE  STORY  OF   BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

Two  weeks  before  his  arrival  the  battle  of  Lex- 
ington had  been  fought,  and  the  war  of  the  Revo- 
lution had  been  begun. 

Franklin  had  done  all  that  he  could  to  persuade 
the  English  king  to  deal  justly  with  the  Ameri- 
can colonies.  But  the  king  and  his  counselors 
had  refused  to  listen  to  him. 

During  his  ten  years  abroad  he  had  not  stayed 
all  the  time  in  England.  He  had  traveled  in 
many  countries  of  Europe,  and  had  visited  Paris 
several  times. 

Many  changes  had  taken  place  while  he  was 
absent. 

His  wife,  Mrs.  Deborah  Franklin,  had  died. 
His  parents  and  fifteen  of  his  brothers  and  sisters 
had  also  been  laid  in  the  grave. 

The  rest  of  his  days  were  to  be  spent  in  the 
service  of  his  country,  to  which  he  had  already 
given  nearly  twenty  years  of  his  life. 

XIV. -- FRANKLIN'S  WONDERFUL  KITE 

Benjamin  Franklin  was  not  only  a  printer, 
politician,  and  statesman,  he  was  the  first  sci- 
entist of  America.  In  the  midst  of  perplexing 


FRANKLIN'S  WONDERFUL  KITE  109 

cares  it  was  his  delight  to  study  the  laws  of  na- 
ture and  try  to  understand  some  of  the  mys- 
teries of  creation. 

In  his  time  no  very  great  discoveries  had  yet 
been  made.  The  steam  engine  was  unknown. 
The  telegraph  had  not  so  much  as  been  dreamed 
about.  Thousands  of  comforts  which  we  now 
enjoy  through  the  discoveries  of  science  were 
then  unthought  of;  or  if  thought  of,  they  were 
deemed  to  be  impossible. 

Franklin  began  to  make  experiments  in  elec- 
tricity when  he  was  about  forty  years  old. 

He  was  the  first  person  to  discover  that  light- 
ning is  caused  by  electricity.  He  had  long 
thought  that  this  was  true,  but  he  had  no  means 
of  proving  it. 

He  thought  that  if  he  could  stand  on  some  high 
tower  during  a  thunderstorm,  he  might  be  able 
to  draw  some  of  the  electricity  from  the  clouds 
through  a  pointed  iron  rod.  But  there  was  no 
high  tower  in  Philadelphia.  There  was  not  even 
a  tall  church  spire. 

At  last  he  thought  of  making  a  kite  and  send- 
ing it  up  to  the  clouds.  A  paper  kite,  however, 


no        THE  STORY  OF   BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 

would  be  ruined  by  the  rain  and  would  not  fly  to 
any  great  height. 

So  instead  of  paper  he  used  a  light  silk  hand- 
kerchief which  he  fastened  to  two  slender  but 
strong  cross  pieces.  At  the  top  of  the  kite  he 
placed  a  pointed  iron  rod.  The  string  was  of 
hemp,  except  a  short  piece  at  the  lower  end, 
which  was  of  silk.  At  the  end  of  the  hemp  string 
an  iron  key  was  tied. 

"I  think  that  is  a  queer  kind  of  kite,"  said 
Franklin's  little  boy.  "What  are  you  going  to 
do  with  it  ?" 

"Wait  until  the  next  thunderstorm,  and  you 
will  see,"  said  Franklin.  :<You  may  go  with  me 
and  we  will  send  it  up  to  the  clouds." 

He  told  no  one  else  about  it,  for  if  the  experi- 
ment should  fail,  he  did  not  care  to  have  every- 
body laugh  at  him. 

At  last,  one  day,  a  thunderstorm  came  up, 
and  Franklin,  with  his  son,  went  out  into  a  field 
to  fly  his  kite.  There  was  a  steady  breeze,  and 
it  was  easy  to  send  the  kite  far  up  towards  the 
clouds. 

Then,    holding   the   silken   end   of  the   string, 


FRANKLIN'S  WONDERFUL   KITE  in 

Franklin  stood  under  a  little  shed  in  the  field, 
and  watched  to  see  what  would  happen. 

The  lightnings  flashed,  the  thunder  rolled,  but 
there  was  no  sign  of  electricity  in  the  kite.  At 
last,  when  he  was  about  to  give  up  the  experi- 
ment, Franklin  saw  the  loose  fibers  of  his  hempen 
string  begin  to  move. 

He  put  his  knuckles  close  to  the  key,  and 
sparks  of  fire  came  flying  to  his  hand.  He  was 
wild  with  delight.  The  sparks  of  fire  were  elec- 
tricity ;  he  had  drawn  them  from  the  clouds. 

That  experiment,  if  Franklin  had  only  known 
it,  was  a  very  dangerous  one.  It  was  fortunate  for 
him,  and  for  the  world,  that  he  suffered  no  harm. 
More  than  one  person  who  has  since  tried  to  draw 
electricity  from  the  clouds  has  been  killed  by  the 
lightning  that  has  flashed  down  the  hempen  kite 
string. 

When  Franklin's  discovery  was  made  known 
it  caused  great  excitement  among  the  learned 
men  of  Europe.  They  could  not  believe  it  was 
true  until  some  of  them  had  proved  it  by  similar 
experiments. 

They  could  hardly  believe  that  a  man  in  the 


112        THE  STORY  OF  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

far-away  city  of  Philadelphia  could  make  a  dis- 
covery which  they  had  never  thought  of  as 
possible.  Indeed,  how  could  an  American  do 
anything  that  was  worth  doing  ? 

Franklin  soon  became  famous  in  foreign  coun- 
tries as  a  philosopher  and  man  of  science.  The 
universities  of  Oxford  and  Edinburgh  honored 
him  by  conferring  upon  him  their  highest  degrees. 
He  was  now  Doctor  Benjamin  Franklin.  But 
in  America  people  still  thought  of  him  only  as 
a  man  of  affairs,  as  a  great  printer,  and  as  the 
editor  of  Poor  Richard's  Almanac. 

All  this  happened  before  the  beginning  of  his 
career  as  ambassador  from  the  colonies  to  the 
king  and  government  of  England. 

I  cannof.  tell  you  of  all  of  his  discoveries  in 
science.  He  invented  the  lightning  rod,  and,  by 
trying  many  experiments,  he  learned  more  about 
electricity  than  the  world  had  ever  known  before. 

He  made  many  curious  experiments  to  dis- 
cover the  laws  of  heat,  light,  and  sound.  By 
laying  strips  of  colored  cloth  on  snow,  he  learned 
which  colors  are  the  best  conductors  of  heat. 

He  invented  the  harmonica,  an  ingenious  musi- 


FRANKLIN'S  WONDERFUL   KITE  113 

cal   instrument,   in  which   the   sounds  were   pro- 
duced by  musical  glasses. 

During  his  long  stay  abroad  he  did  not  neglect 
his  scientific  studies.  He  visited  many  of  the 
greatest  scholars  of  the  time,  and  was  every- 
where received  with  much  honor. 

The  great  scientific  societies  of  Europe,  the 
Royal  Academies  in  Paris  and  in  Madrid,  had 
already  elected  him  as  one  of  their  members. 
The  King  of  France  wrote  him  a  letter,  thank- 
ing him  for  his  useful  discoveries  in  electricity, 
and  for  his  invention  of  the  lightning  rod. 

All  this  would  have  made  some  men  very 
proud.  But  it  was  not  so  with  Dr.  Franklin.  In 
a  letter  which  he  wrote  to  a  friend  at  the  time 
when  these  honors  were  beginning  to  be  showered 
upon  him,  he  said  : 

'The  pride  of  man  is  very  differently  gratified  ; 
and  had  his  Majesty  sent  me  a  marshal's  staff  I 
think  I  should  scarce  have  been  so  proud  of  it  as 
I  am  of  your  esteem." 


H4        THE  STORY  OF  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

XV.  —  THE  LAST  YEARS 

In  1776  delegates  from  all  the  colonies  met  in 
Philadelphia.  They  formed  what  is  known  in 
history  as  the  Second  Continental  Congress  of 
America. 

It  was  now  more  than  a  year  since  the  war 
had  begun,  and  the  colonists  had  made  up  their 
minds  not  to  obey  the  oppressive  laws  of  the 
King  of  England  and  his  council. 

Many  of  them  were  strongly  in  favor  of  setting 
up  a  new  government  of  their  own. 

The  Congress,  therefore,  appointed  a  committee 
of  three  of  its  members  to  draft  a  declaration  of 
independence.  Benjamin  Franklin  was  one  of 
that  committee. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  Congress  declared  the  col- 
onies to  be  free  and  independent  states,  no  longer 
subject  to  the  laws  of  England.  Among  the  men 
who  signed  their  names  to  this  Declaration  of 
Independence  was  Benjamin  Franklin  of  Penn- 
sylvania. 

Soon  after  this  Dr.  Franklin  was  sent  to  Paris 
as  minister  from  the  United  States.  Early  in  the 


THE  LAST  YEARS  115 

following  year,  1777,  he  induced  the  King  of 
France  to  acknowledge  the  independence  of  this 
country. 

He  thus  secured  aid  for  the  Americans  at  a 
time  when  they  were  in  the  greatest  need  of  it. 
Had  it  not  been  for  his  services  at  this  time, 
the  war  of  the  Revolution  might  have  ended 
very  differently,  indeed. 

It  was  not  until  1785  that  he  was  again  able  to 
return  to  his  home. 

He  was  then  nearly  eighty  years  old. 

He  had  served  his  country  faithfully  for  fifty- 
three  years.  He  would  have  been  glad  if  he 
might  retire  to  private  life,  but  the  people  who 
knew  and  appreciated  his  great  worth,  would  not 
permit  him  to  do  so. 

When  he  reached  Philadelphia  he  was  received 
with  joy  by  thousands  of  his  countrymen. 

General  George  Washington  was  among  the 
first  to  welcome  him,  and  to  thank  him  for  his 
great  services. 

That  same  year  the  grateful  people  of  his  state 
elected  him  President  of  Pennsylvania. 

Two  years  afterwards,  he  wrote : 


Il6        THE  STORY  OF   BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

"  I  am  here  in  my  niche  in  my  own  house,  in  the 
bosom  of  my  family,  my  daughter  and  grand- 
children all  about  me,  among  my  old  friends,  or 
the  sons  of  my  friends,  who  equally  respect  me. 

"In  short,  I  enjoy  here  every  opportunity  of 
doing  good,  and  everything  else  I  could  wish 
for,  except  repose  ;  and  that  I  may  soon  expect, 
either  by  the  cessation  of  my  office,  which  can- 
not last  more  than  three  years,  or  by  ceasing  to 
live." 

The  next  year  he  was  a  delegate  to  the  con- 
vention which  formed  the  present  Constitution 
of  the  United  States.  By  the  adoption  of  this 
Constitution,  the  thirteen  United  States  became  a 
single  nation  worthy  to  be  ranked  with  the  other 
great  governments  of  the  world. 

In  a  letter  written  to  his  friend,  General 
Washington,  not  long  afterwards,  Benjamin 
Franklin  said  :  "  For  my  personal  ease  I  should 
have  died  two  years  ago ;  but  though  those 
years  have  been  spent  in  pain,  I  am  glad  to  have 
lived  them,  since  I  can  look  upon  our  present 
situation." 

In  April,  1790,  he  died,  and  was  buried  by  the 


THE  LAST  YEARS  117 

side  of  his  wife,  Deborah,  in  Arch  Street  grave- 
yard in  Philadelphia.  His  age  was  eighty-four 
years  and  three  months. 

Many   years   before   his   death  he  had  written 
the  following  epitaph  for  himself: 

"The  Body 

of 

Benjamin  Franklin,  Printer, 
(Like  the  cover  of  an  old  book, 

Its  contents  torn  out, 
And  stripped  of  its  lettering  and  gilding,) 

Lies  here  food  for  worms. 

Yet  the  work  itself  shall  not  be  lost, 

For  it  will  (as  he  believed)  appear  once  more 

In  a  new 

And  more  beautiful  Edition, 
Corrected  and  Amended 

By 
The  Author." 


THE   STORY   OF 
DANIEL   WEBSTER 


I.  —  CAPTAIN  WEBSTER 

Many  years  ago  there  lived  in  New  Hampshire 
a  poor  farmer,  whose  name  was  Ebenezer  Webster. 

His  little  farm  was  among  the  hills,  not  far 
from  the  Merrimac  River.  It  was  a  beautiful 
place  to  live  in  ;  but  the  ground  was  poor,  and 
there  were  so  many  rocks  that  you  would  wonder 
how  anything  could  grow  among  them. 

Ebenezer  Webster  was  known  far  and  wide  as 
a  brave,  wise  man.  When  any  of  his  neighbors 
were  in  trouble  or  in  doubt  about  anything,  they 
always  said,  "We  will  ask  Captain  Webster  about 
it." 

They  called  him  Captain  because  he  had  fought 
the  French  and  Indians  and  had  been  a  brave 
soldier  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  Indeed,  he 
was  one  of  the  first  men  in  New  Hampshire  to 
take  up  arms  for  his  country. 

121 


122  THE  STORY  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

When  he  heard  that  the  British  were  sending 
soldiers  to  America  to  force  the  people  to  obey 
the  unjust  laws  of  the  King  of  England,  he  said, 
"We  must  never  submit  to  this." 

So  he  went  among  his  neighbors  and  persuaded 
them  to  sign  a  pledge  to  do  all  that  they  could 
to  defend  the  country  against  the  British.  Then 
he  raised  a  company  of  two  hundred  men  and 
led  them  to  Boston  to  join  the  American  army. 

The  Revolutionary  War  lasted  several  years ; 
and  during  all  that  time,  Captain  Webster  was 
known  as  one  of  the  bravest  of  the  American 
patriots. 

One  day,  at  West  Point,  he  met  General  Wash- 
ington. The  patriots  were  in  great  trouble  at 
that  time,  for  one  of  their  leaders  had  turned 
traitor  and  had  gone  to  help  the  British.  The 
officers  and  soldiers  were  much  distressed,  for 
they  did  not  know  who  might  be  the  next  to  de- 
sert them. 

As  I  have  said,  Captain  Webster  met  General 
Washington.  The  general  took  the  captain's 
hand,  and  said,  "I  believe  that  I  can  trust  you, 
Captain  Webster." 


CAPTAIN  WEBSTER  123 

You  may  believe  that  this  made  Captain  Web- 
ster feel  very  happy.  When  he  went  back  to  his 
humble  home  among  the  New  Hampshire  hills, 
he  was  never  so  proud  as  when  telling  his  neigh- 
bors about  this  meeting  with  General  Washington. 

If  you  could  have  seen  Captain  Ebenezer  Web- 
ster in  those  days,  you  would  have  looked  at  him 
more  than  once.  He  was  a  remarkable  man. 
He  was  very  tall  and  straight,  with  dark,  glowing 
eyes,  and  hair  as  black  as  night.  His  face  was 
kind,  but  it  showed  much  firmness  and  decision. 

He   had   never   attended    school ;    but   he   had 

tried,  as  well  as  he  could,  to  educate  himself.     It 

N> 

was  on  account  of  his  honesty  and  good  judg- 
ment that  he  was  looked  up  to  as  the  leading 
man  in  the  neighborhood. 

In  some  way,  I  do  not  know  how,  he  had  gotten 
a  little  knowledge  of  the  law.  And  at  last,  be- 
cause of  this  as  well  as  because  of  his  sound  com- 
mon sense,  he  was  appointed  judge  of  the  court 
in  his  county. 

This  was  several  years  after  the  war  was  over. 
He  was  now  no  longer  called  Captain  Webster,  but 
Judge  Webster. 


124  THE   STORY  OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER 

It  had  been  very  hard  for  him  to  make  a  living 
for  his  large  family  on  the  stony  farm  among  the 
hills.  But  now  his  office  as  judge  would  bring 
him  three  hundred  or  four  hundred  dollars  a 
year.  He  had  never  had  so  much  money  in 
his  life. 

"Judge  Webster,"  said  one  of  his  neighbors, 
"what  are  you  going  to  do  with  the  money  that 
you  get  from  your  office  ?  Going  to  build  a  new 
house  ?" 

"Well,  no,"  said  the  judge.  'The  old  house 
is  small,  but  we  have  lived  in  it  a  long  time,  and 
it  still  does  very  well." 

"Then  I  suppose  you  are  planning  to  buy  more 
land  ?"  said  the  neighbor. 

"No,  indeed,  I  have  as  much  land  now  as  I  can 
cultivate.  But  I  will  tell  you  what  I  am  going 
to  do  with  my  money.  I  am  going  to  try  to  edu- 
cate my  boys.  I  would  rather  do  this  than  have 
lands  and  houses." 

II. --THE  YOUNGEST  SON 

Ebenezer  Webster  had  several  sons.  But  at 
the  time  that  he  was  appointed  judge  there  were 


THE  YOUNGEST  SON  125 

only  two  at  home.     The  older  ones  were  grown 
up  and  were  doing  for  themselves. 

It  was  of  the  two  at  home  that  he  was  thinking 
when  he  said,  "I  am  going  to  try  to  educate  my 
boys." 

Of  the  ten  children  in  the  family,  the  favorite' 
was  a  black-haired,  dark-skinned  little  fellow 
called  Daniel.  He  was  the  youngest  of  all  the 
boys ;  but  there  was  one  girl  who  was  younger 
than  he. 

Daniel  Webster  was  born  on  the  i8th  of  Jan- 
uary, 1782. 

He  was  a  puny  child,  very  slender  and  weak ; 
and  the  neighbors  were  fond  of  telling  his  mother 
that  he  could  not  live  long.  Perhaps  this  was 
one  of  the  things  that  caused  him  to  be  favored 
and  petted  by  his  parents. 

But  there  were  other  reasons  why  every  one 
was  attracted  by  him.  There  were  other  reasons 
why  his  brothers  and  sisters  were  always  ready 
to  do  him  a  service. 

He  was  an  affectionate,  loving  child  ;  and  he 
was  wonderfully  bright  and  quick. 

He  was  not  strong  enough  to  work  on  the  farm 


126  THE  STORY  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

like  other  boys.  He  spent  much  of  his  time  play- 
ing in  the  woods  or  roaming  among  the  hills. 

And  when  he  was  not  at  play  he  was  quite  sure 
to  be  found  in  some  quiet  corner  with  a  book  in 
his  hand.  He  afterwards  said  of  himself:  "In 
those  boyish  days  there  were  two  things  that  I 
dearly  loved  —  reading  and  playing." 

He  could  never  tell  how  or  when  he  had  learned 
to  read.  Perhaps  his  mother  had  taught  him 
when  he  was  but  a  mere  babe. 

He  was  very  young  when  he  was  first  sent  to 
school.  The  schoolhouse  was  two  or  three  miles 
away,  but  he  did  not  mind  the  long  walk  through 
the  woods  and  over  the  hills. 

It  was  not  a  great  while  until  he  had  learned 
all  that  his  teacher  was  able  to  teach  him  ;  for  he 
had  a  quick  understanding,  and  he  remembered 
everything  that  he  read. 

The  people  of  the  neighborhood  never  tired  of 
talking  about  "Webster's  boy,"  as  they  called  him. 
All  agreed  that  he  was  a  wonderful  child. 

Some  said  that  so  wonderful  a  child  was  sure 
to  die  young.  Others  said  that  if  he  lived  he 
would  certainly  become  a  very  great  man. 


THE  YOUNGEST  SON  127 

When  the  farmers,  on  their  way  to  market, 
drove  past  Judge  Webster's  house,  they  were 
always  glad  if  they  could  see  the  delicate  boy, 
with  his  great  dark  eyes. 

If  it  was  near  the  hour  of  noon,  they  would 
stop  their  teams  under  the  shady  elms  and  ask 
him  to  come  out  and  read  to  them.  Then,  while 
their  horses  rested  and  ate,  they  would  sit  round 
the  boy  and  listen  to  his  wonderful  tones  as  he 
read  page  after  page  from  the  Bible. 

There  were  no  children's  books  in  those  times. 
Indeed,  there  were  very  few  books  to  be  had  of 
any  kind.  But  young  Daniel  Webster  found 
nothing  too  hard  to  read. 

"I  read  what  I  could  get  to  read,"  he  after- 
wards said  ;  "I  went  to  school  when  I  could, 
and  when  not  at  school,  was  a  farmer's  youngest 
boy,  not  good  for  much  for  want  of  health  and 
strength,  but  expected  to  do  something." 

One  day  the  man  who  kept  the  little  store  in 
the  village,  showed  him  something  that  made 
his  heart  leap. 

It  was  a  cotton  handkerchief  with  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  printed  on  one  side  of  it. 


128  THE   STORY  OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER 

In  those  days  people  were  talking  a  great  deal 
about  the  Constitution,  for  it  had  just  then  come 
into  force. 

Daniel  had  never  read  it.  When  he  saw  the 
handkerchief  he  could  not  rest  till  he  had  made 
it  his  own. 

He  counted  all  his  pennies,  he  borrowed  a 
few  from  his  brother  Ezekiel.  Then  he  hurried 
back  to  the  store  and  bought  the  wished-for 
treasure. 

In  a  short  time  he  knew  everything  in  the  Con- 
stitution, and  could  repeat  whole  sections  of  it 
from  memory.  We  shall  learn  that,  when  he 
afterwards  became  one  of  the  great  men  of  this 
nation,  he  proved  to  be  the  Constitution's  wisest 
friend  and  ablest  defender. 

III.  --  EZEKIEL  AND  DANIEL 

Ezekiel  Webster  was  two  years  older  than 
his  brother  Daniel.  He  was  a  strong,  manly 
fellow,  and  was  ready  at  all  times  to  do  a  kind- 
ness to  the  lad  who  had  not  been  gifted  with  so 
much  health  and  strength. 

But   he   had   not   Daniel's   quickness  of  mind, 


EZEKIEL  AND  DANIEL  129 

and  he  always  looked  to  his  younger  brother 
for  advice  and  instruction. 

And  so  there  was  much  love  between  the  two 
brothers,  each  helping  the  other  according  to  his 
talents  and  his  ability. 

One  day  they  went  together  to  the  county  fair. 
Each  had  a  few  cents  in  his  pocket  for  spending- 
money,  and  both  expected  to  have  a  fine  time. 

When  they  came  home  in  the  evening  Daniel 
seemed  very  happy,  but  Ezekiel  was  silent. 

"Well,  Daniel,"  said  their  mother,  "what  did 
you  do  with  your  money  ?" 

"I  spent  it  at  the  fair,"  said  Daniel. 

"And  what  did  you  do  with  yours,  Ezekiel  ?" 

"I  lent  it  to  Daniel,"  was  the  answer. 

It  was  this  way  at  all  times,  and  with  every- 
body. Not  only  Ezekiel,  but  others  were  ever 
ready  to  give  up  their  own  means  of  enjoyment 
if  only  it  would  make  Daniel  happy. 

At  another  time  the  brothers  were  standing 
together  by  their  father,  who  had  just  come  home 
after  several  days'  absence. 

"Ezekiel,"  said  Mr.  Webster,  "what  have  you 
been  doing  since  I  went  away  ?" 


130  THE  STORY  OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER 

"Nothing,  sir,"  said  Ezekiel. 

"You  are  very  frank,"  said  the  judge.  Then 
turning  to  Daniel,  he  said  : 

"What  have  you  been  doing,  Dan  ?" 

"Helping  Zeke,"  said  Daniel. 

When  Judge  Webster  said  to  his  neighbor,  "  I  am 
going  to  try  to  educate  my  boys,"  he  had  no  thought 
of  ever  being  able  to  send  both  of  them  to  college. 

Ezekiel,  he  said  to  himself,  was  strong  and 
hearty.  He  could  make  his  own  way  in  the 
world  without  having  a  finished  education. 

But  Daniel  had  little  strength  of  body,  although 
he  was  gifted  with  great  mental  powers.  It  was 
he  that  must  be  the  scholar  of  the  family. 

The  judge  argued  with  himself  that  since  he 
would  be  able  to  educate  only  one  of  the  boys, 
he  must  educate  that  one  who  gave  the  greatest 
promise  of  success.  And  yet,  had  it  not  been 
for  his  poverty,  he  would  gladly  have  given  the 
same  opportunities  to  both. 

IV.  —  PLANS  FOR  THE  FUTURE 

One  hot  day  in  summer  the  judge  and  his  young- 
est son  were  at  work  together  in  the  hayfield. 


PLANS   FOR  THE   FUTURE  131 

"Daniel,"  said  the  judge,  "I  am  thinking  that 
this  kind  of  work  is  hardly  the  right  thing  for 
you.  You  must  prepare  yourself  for  greater 
things  than  pitching  hay." 

"What  do  you  mean,  father?"  asked  Daniel. 

"  I  mean  that  you  must  have  that  which  I  have 
always  felt  the  need  of.  You  must  have  a  good 
education ;  for  without  an  education  a  man  is 
always  at  a  disadvantage.  If  I  had  been  able  to 
go  to  school  when  I  was  a  boy,  I  might  have  done 
more  for  my  country  than  I  have.  But  as  it  is, 
I  can  do  nothing  but  struggle  here  for  the  means 
of  living." 

"Zeke  and  I  will  help  you,  father,"  said  Dan- 
iel ;  "  and  now  that  you  are  growing  old,  you 
need  not  work  so  hard." 

"I  am  not  complaining  about  the  work,"  said 
the  judge.  "I  live  only  for  my  children.  When 
your  older  brothers  were  growing  up  I  was  too 
poor  to  give  them  an  education  ;  but  I  am  able 
now  to  do  something  for  you,  and  I  mean  to  send 
you  to  a  good  school." 

"Oh,  father,  how  kind  you  are  !"  cried  Daniel. 

"If  you  will   study   hard,"   said   his   father  — 


132  THE  STORY  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

"if  you  will  do  your  best,  and  learn  all  that  you 
can,  you  will  not  have  to  endure  such  hardships 
as  I  have  endured.  And  then  you  will  be  able 
to  do  so  much  more  good  in  the  world." 

The  boy's  heart  was  touched  by  the  manner 
in  which  his  father  spoke  these  words.  He 
dropped  his  rake ;  he  threw  his  arms  around 
his  father's  neck,  and  cried  for  joy. 

It  was  not  until  the  next  spring  that  Judge 
Webster  felt  himself  able  to  carry  out  his  plans 
to  send  Daniel  to  school. 

One  evening  he  said,  "Daniel,  you  must  be  up 
early  in  the  morning,  I  am  going  with  you  to 
Exeter." 

"To  Exeter  ?"  said  the  boy. 

"Yes,  to  Exeter.  I  am  going  to  put  you  in 
the  academy  there." 

The  academy  at  Exeter  was  then,  as  it  still  is,  a 
famous  place  for  preparing  boys  for  college.  But 
Daniel's  father  did  not  say  anything  about  mak- 
ing him  ready  for  college.  The  judge  knew  that 
the  expenses  would  be  heavy,  and  he  was  not 
sure  that  he  would  ever  be  able  to  give  him  a 
finished  education. 


PLANS  FOR  THE   FUTURE  133 

It  was  nearly  fifty  miles  to  Exeter,  and  Daniel 
and  his  father  were  to  ride  there  on  horseback. 
That  was  almost  the  only  way  of  traveling  in 
those  days. 

The  next  morning  two  horses  were  brought  to 
the  door.  One  was  Judge  Webster's  horse,  the 
other  was  a  gentle  nag,  with  a  lady's  sidesaddle 
on  his  back. 

"  Who  is  going  to  ride  on  that  nag  ? "  asked  Daniel. 

"Young  Dan  Webster,"  answered  the  judge. 

"But  I  don't  want  a  sidesaddle.  I  am  not  a 
lady." 

"Neighbor  Johnson  is  sending  the  nag  to  Ex- 
eter for  the  use  of  a  lady  who  is  to  ride  back  with 
me.  I  accommodate  him  by  taking  charge  of 
the  animal,  and  he  accommodates  me  by  allow- 
ing you  to  ride  on  it." 

"But  won't  it  look  rather  funny  for  me  to  ride 
to  Exeter  on  a  lady's  saddle  ?" 

"If  a  lady  can  ride  on  it,  perhaps  Dan  Web- 
ster can  do  as  much." 

And  so  they  set  out  on  their  journey  to  Exeter. 
The  judge  rode  in  advance,  and  Daniel,  sitting 
astride  of  the  lady's  saddle,  followed  behind. 


134  THE  STORY  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

It  was,  no  doubt,  a  funny  sight  to  see  them  rid- 
ing thus  along  the  muddy  roads.  None  of  the 
country  people  who  stopped  to  gaze  at  them 
could  have  guessed  that  the  dark-faced  lad  who 
rode  so  awkwardly  would  some  day  become  one 
of  the  greatest  men  of  the  age. 

It  was  thus  that  Daniel  Webster  made  his  first 
appearance  among  strangers. 

V.  —  AT  EXETER  ACADEMY 

It  was  the  first  time  that  Daniel  Webster  had 
been  so  far  from  home.  He  was  bashful  and 
awkward.  His  clothes  were  of  home-made  stuff, 
and  they  were  cut  in  the  quaint  style  of  the  back- 
country  districts. 

He  must  have  been  a  funny-looking  fellow. 
No  wonder  that  the  boys  laughed  when  they  saw 
him  going  up  to  the  principal  to  be  examined  for 
admission. 

The  principal  of  the  academy  at  that  time  was 
Dr.  Benjamin  Abbott.  He  was  a  great  scholar 
and  a  very  dignified  gentleman. 

He  looked  down  at  the  slender,  black-eyed  boy 
and  asked : 


AT  EXETER   ACADEMY  135 

"What  is  your  age,  sir  ?" 

"Fourteen  years,"  said  Daniel. 

"  I  will  examine  you  first  in  reading.  Take  this 
Bible,  and  let  me  hear  you  read  some  of  these 
verses." 

He  pointed  to  the  twenty-second  chapter  of 
Saint  Luke's  Gospel. 

The  boy  took  the  book  and  began  to  read.  He 
had  read  this  chapter  a  hundred  times  before. 
Indeed,  there  was  no  part  of  the  Bible  that  was 
not  familiar  to  him. 

He  read  with  a  clearness  and  fervor  which  few 
men  could  equal. 

The  dignified  principal  was  astonished.  He 
stood  as  though  spellbound,  listening  to  the  rich, 
mellow  tones  of  the  bashful  lad  from  among  the 
hills. 

In  the  case  of  most  boys  it  was  enough  if  he 
heard  them  read  a  verse  or  two.  But  he  allowed 
Daniel  Webster  to  read  on  until  he  had  finished 
the  chapter.  Then  he  said  : 

'There  is  no  need  to  examine  you  further. 
You  are  fully  qualified  to  enter  this  academy." 

Most  of  the  boys  at  Exeter  were  gentlemen's 


136  THE   STORY  OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER 

sons.  They  dressed  well,  they  had  been  taught 
fine  manners,  they  had  the  speech  of  cultivated 
people. 

They  laughed  at  the  awkward,  new  boy.  They 
made  fun  of  his  homespun  coat ;  they  twitted 
him  on  account  of  his  poverty ;  they  annoyed 
him  in  a  hundred  ways. 

Daniel  felt  hurt  by  this  cruel  treatment.  He 
grieved  bitterly  over  it  in  secret,  but  he  did  not 
resent  it. 

He  studied  hard  and  read  much.  He  was  soon 
at  the  head  of  all  his  classes.  His  schoolmates 
ceased  laughing  at  him ;  for  they  saw  that,  with 
all  his  uncouth  ways,  he  had  more  ability  than 
any  of  them. 

He  had,  as  I  have  said,  a  wonderful  memory. 
He  had  also  a  quick  insight  and  sound  judgment. 

But  he  had  had  so  little  experience  with  the 
world,  that  he  was  not  sure  of  his  own  powers. 
He  knew  that  he  was  awkward  ;  and  this  made 
him  timid  and  bashful. 

When  it  came  his  turn  to  declaim  before  the 
school,  he  had  not  the  courage  to  do  it.  Long 
afterwards,  when  he  had  become  the  greatest 


AT  EXETER   ACADEMY  137 

orator  of  modern  times,  he  told  how  hard  this 
thing  had  been  for  him  at  Exeter : 

"Many  a  piece  did  I  commit  to  memory,  and 
rehearse  in  my  room  over  and  over  again.  But 
when  the  day  came,  when  the  school  collected, 
when  my  name  was  called  and  I  saw  all  eyes 
turned  upon  my  seat,  I  could  not  raise  myself 
from  it. 

"Sometimes  the  masters  frowned,  sometimes 
they  smiled.  My  tutor  always  pressed  and  en- 
treated with  the  most  winning  kindness  that  I 
would  venture  only  once;  but  I  could  not  com- 
mand sufficient  resolution,  and  when  the  occa- 
sion was  over  I  went  home  and  wept  tears  of 
bitter  mortification. " 

Daniel  stayed  nine  months  at  Exeter.  In  those 
nine  months  he  did  as  much  as  the  other  boys  of 
his  age  could  do  in  two  years. 

He  mastered  arithmetic,  geography,  grammar, 

'and  rhetoric.     He  also  began  the  study  of  Latin. 

Besides  this,  he  was  a  great  reader  of  all  kinds  of 

books,  and  he  added  something  every  day  to  his 

general  stock  of  knowledge. 

His   teachers   did   not   oblige   him   to   follow   a 


138  THE   STORY  OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER 

graded  course  of  study.  They  did  not  hold  him 
back  with  the  duller  pupils  of  his  class.  They 
did  not  oblige  him  to  wait  until  the  end  of  the 
year  before  he  could  be  promoted  or  could  begin 
the  study  of  a  new  subject. 

But  they  encouraged  him  to  do  his  best.  As 
soon  as  he  had  finished  one  subject,  he  advanced 
to  a  more  difficult  one. 

More  than  fifty  years  afterwards,  Dr.  Abbott 
declared  that  in  all  his  long  experience  he  had 
never  known  any  one  whose  power  of  gaining 
knowledge  was  at  all  equal  to  that  of  the  bashful 
country  lad  from  the  New  Hampshire  hills. 

Judge  Webster  would  have  been  glad  to  let 
Daniel  stay  at  Exeter  until  he  had  finished  the 
studies  required  at  the  academy.  But  he  could 
not  afford  the  expense. 

If  he  should  spend  all  his  money  to  keep  the 
boy  at  the  academy,  how  could  he  afterwards 
find  the  means  to  send  him  to  college  where  the 
expenses  would  be  much  greater  ? 

So  he  thought  it  best  to  find  a  private  teacher 
for  the  boy.  This  would  be  cheaper. 


GETTING  READY  FOR   COLLEGE  139 

VI.  —  GETTING  READY  FOR  COLLEGE 

One  day  in  the  early  winter,  Judge  Webster 
asked  Daniel  to  ride  with  him  to  Boscawen.  Bos- 
cawen  was  a  little  town,  six  miles  away,  where 
they  sometimes  went  for  business  or  for  pleasure. 

Snow  was  on  the  ground.  Father  and  son  rode 
together  in  a  little,  old-fashioned  sleigh ;  and  as 
they  rode,  they  talked  about  many  things.  Just 
as  they  were  going  up  the  last  hill,  Judge  Web- 
ster said  : 

"Daniel,  do  you  know  the  Rev.  Samuel  Wood, 
here  in  Boscawen  ?" 

"I  have  heard  of  him,"  said  Daniel.  "He 
takes  boys  into  his  family,  and  gets  them  ready 
for  college." 

'Yes,  and  he  does  it  cheap,  too,"  said  his 
father.  "He  charges  only  a  dollar  a  week  for 
board  and  tuition,  fuel  and  lights  and  every- 
thing." 

"  But  they  say  he  is  a  fine  teacher,"  said  Daniel. 
"His  boys  never  fail  in  the  college  examinations." 

'That  is  what  I  have  heard,  too,"  answered 
his  father.  "And  now,  Dannie,  I  may  as  well 


140  THE  STORY  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

tell  you  a  secret.  For  the  last  six  years  I  have 
been  planning  to  have  you  take  a  course  in  Dart- 
mouth College.  I  want  you  to  stay  with  Dr. 
Wood  this  winter,  and  he  will  get  you  ready  to 
enter.  We  might  as  well  go  and  see  him  now." 

This  was  the  first  time  that  Daniel  had  ever 
heard  his  father  speak  of  sending  him  to  college. 
His  heart  was  so  full  that  he  could  not  say  a 
word.  But  the  tears  came  in  his  eyes  as  he 
looked  up  into  the  judge's  stern,  kind  face. 

He  knew  that  if  his  father  carried  out  this  plan, 
it  would  cost  a  great  deal  of  money ;  and  if  this 
money  should  be  spent  for  him,  then  the  rest  of 
the  family  would  have  to  deny  themselves  of 
many  comforts  which  they  might  otherwise  have. 

"Oh,  never  mind  that,  Dan,"  said  his  brother 
Ezekiel.  "We  are  never  so  happy  as  when  we 
are  doing  something  for  you.  And  we  know 
that  you  will  do  something  for  us,  some  time." 

And  so  the  boy  spent  the  winter  in  Boscawen 
with  Dr.  Wood.  He  learned  everything  very 
easily,  but  he  was  not  as  close  a  student  as  he 
had  been  at  Exeter. 

He  was  very  fond  of  sport.     He  liked  to  go 


GETTING  READY   FOR   COLLEGE  141 

fishing.  And  sometimes,  when  the  weather  was 
fine,  his  studies  were  sadly  neglected. 

There  was  a  circulating  library  in  Boscawen, 
and  Daniel  read  every  book  that  was  in  it. 
Sometimes  he  slighted  his  Latin  for  the  sake  of 
giving  more  time  to  such  reading. 

One  of  the  books  in  the  library  was  Don  Quixote. 
Daniel  thought  it  the  most  wonderful  story  in 
existence.  He  afterwards  said  : 

"I  began  to  read  it,  and  it  is  literally  true  that 
I  never  closed  my  eyes  until  I  had  finished  it,  so 
great  was  the  power  of  this  extraordinary  book 
on  my  imagination." 

But  it  was  so  easy  for  the  boy  to  learn,  that  he 
made  very  rapid  progress  in  all  his  studies.  In 
less  than  a  year,  Dr.  Wood  declared  that  he  was 
ready  for  college. 

He  was  then  fifteen  years  old.  He  had  a 
pretty  thorough  knowledge  of  arithmetic ;  but 
he  had  never  studied  algebra  or  geometry.  In 
Latin  he  had  read  four  of  Cicero's  orations,  and 
six  books  of  Virgil's  JEneid.  He  knew  some- 
thing of  the  elements  of  Greek  grammar,  and 
had  read  a  portion  of  the  Greek  Testament. 


142  THE  STORY  OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER 

Nowadays,  a  young  man  could  hardly  enter 
even  a  third-rate  college  without  a  better  prep- 
aration than  that.  But  colleges  are  much  more 
thorough  than  they  were  a  hundred  years  ago. 

VII. — AT  DARTMOUTH  COLLEGE 

Dartmouth  College  is  at  Hanover,  New  Hamp- 
shire. It  is  one  of  the  oldest  colleges  in  America 
and  among  its  students  have  been  many  of  the 
foremost  men  of  New  England. 

It  was  in  the  fall  of  1797,  that  Daniel  Webster 
entered  this  college. 

He  was  then  a  tall,  slender  youth,  with  high 
cheek  bones  and  a  swarthy  skin. 

The  professors  soon  saw  that  he  was  no  com- 
mon lad.  They  said  to  one  another,  "This  young 
Webster  will  one  day  be  a  greater  man  than  any 
of  us." 

And  young  Webster  was  well-behaved  and 
studious  at  college.  He  was  as  fond  of  sport  as 
any  of  the  students,  but  he  never  gave  himself 
up  to  boyish  pranks. 

He  was  punctual  and  regular  in  all  his  classes. 
He  was  as  great  a  reader  as  ever. 


AT  DARTMOUTH   COLLEGE  143 

He  could  learn  anything  that  he  tried.  No 
other  young  man  had  a  broader  knowledge  of 
things  than  he. 

And  yet  he  did  not  make  his  mark  as  a  student 
in  the  prescribed  branches  of  study.  He  could 
not  confine  himself  to  the  narrow  routine  of  the 
college  course. 

He  did  not,  as  at  Exeter,  push  his  way  quickly 
to  the  head  of  his  class.  He  won  no  prizes. 

"But  he  minded  his  own  business,"  said  one  of 
the  professors.  'vAs  steady  as  the  sun,  he  pur- 
sued, with  intense  application,  the  great  object 
tor  which  he  came  to  college." 

Soon  everybody  began  to  appreciate  his  scholar- 
ship. Everybody  admired  him  for  his  manliness 
and  good  common  sense. 

"He  was  looked  upon  as  being  so  far  in  ad- 
vance of  any  one  else,  that  no  other  student  of 
his  class  was  ever  spoken  of  as  second  to  him." 

He  very  soon  lost  that  bashfulness  which  had 
troubled  him  so  much  at  Exeter.  It  was  no  task 
now  for  him  to  stand  up  and  declaim  before  the 
professors  and  students. 

In  a  short  time  he  became  known  as  the  best 


144  THE   STORY  OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER 

writer  and  speaker  in  the  college.  Indeed,  he 
loved  to  speak ;  and  the  other  students  were  al- 
ways pleased  to  listen  to  him. 

One  of  his  classmates  tells  us  how  he  prepared 
his  speeches.  He  says:  "It  was  Webster's  cus- 
tom to  arrange  his  thoughts  in  his  mind  while 
he  was  in  his  room,  or  while  he  was  walking  alone. 
Then  he  would  put  them  upon  paper  just  before 
the  exercise  was  to  be  called  for. 

"If  he  was  to  speak  at  two  o'clock,  he  would 
often  begin  to  write  after  dinner ;  and  when  the 
bell  rang  he  would  fold  his  paper,  put  it  in  his 
pocket,  go  in,  and  speak  with  great  ease. 

"In  his  movements  he  was  slow  and  deliberate, 
except  when  his  feelings  were  aroused.  Then 
his  whole  soul  would  kindle  into  a  flame." 

In  the  year  1800,  he  was  chosen  to  deliver  thd 
Fourth  of  July  address  to  the  students  of  the 
college  and  the  citizens  of  the  town.  He  was 
then  eighteen  years  old. 

The  speech  was  a  long  one.  It  was  full  of  the 
love  of  country.  Its  tone  throughout  was  earn- 
est and  thoughtful. 

But  in  its  style  it  was  overdone ;    it  was  full  of 


HOW  DANIEL  TAUGHT  SCHOOL  145 

pretentious  expressions ;  it  lacked  the  simplicity 
and  good  common  sense  that  should  mark  all 
public  addresses. 

And  yet,  as  the  speech  of  so  young  a  man,  it 
was  a  very  able  effort.  People  said  that  it  was 
the  promise  of  much  greater  things.  And  they 
were  right. 

In  the  summer  of  1801,  Daniel  graduated. 
But  he  took  no  honors.  He  was  not  even  pres- 
ent at  the  Commencement. 

His  friends  were  grieved  that  he  had  not  been 
chosen  to  deliver  the  valedictory  address.  Per- 
haps he  also  was  disappointed.  But  the  profes- 
sors had  thought  best  to  give  that  honor  to  another 
student. 

VIII. --How  DANIEL  TAUGHT  SCHOOL 

While  Daniel  Webster  was  taking  his  course 
in  college,  there  was  one  thing  that  troubled  him 
very  much.  It  was  the  thought  of  his  brother 
Ezekiel  toiling  at  home  on  the  farm. 

He  knew  that  Ezekiel  had  great  abilities.  He 
knew  that  he  was  not  fond  of  the  farm,  but  that 
he  was  anxious  to  become  a  lawyer. 


146  THE   STORY  OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER 

This  brother  had  given  up  all  his  dearest  plans 
in  order  that  Daniel  might  be  favored ;  and 
Daniel  knew  that  this  was  so. 

Once,  when  Daniel  was  at  home  on  a  vacation, 
he  said,  "Zeke,  this  thing  is  all  wrong.  Father 
has  mortgaged  the  farm  for  money  to  pay  my  ex- 
penses at  school,  and  you  are  making  a  slave  of 
yourself  to  pay  off  the  mortgage.  It  isn't  right 
for  me  to  let  you  do  this." 

Ezekiel  said,  "Daniel,  I  am  stronger  than  you 
are,  and  if  one  of  us  has  to  stay  on  the  farm,  of 
course  I  am  the  one." 

"But  I  want  you  to  go  to  college,"  said  Daniel. 
"An  education  will  do  you  as  much  good  as  me." 

"I  doubt  it,"  said  Ezekiel;  "and  yet,  if  father 
was  only  able  to  send  us  both,  I  think  that  we 
might  pay  him  back  some  time." 

"I  will  see  father  about  it  this  very  day,"  said 
Daniel. 

He  did  see  him. 

"I  told  my  father,"  said  Daniel,  afterwards, 
"that  I  was  unhappy  at  my  brother's  prospects. 
For  myself,  I  saw  my  way  to  knowledge,  re- 
spectability, and  self-protection.  But  as  to  Eze- 


HOW   DANIEL  TAUGHT  SCHOOL  147 

kiel,  all  looked  the  other  way.  I  said  that  I 
would  keep  school,  and  get  along  as  well  as  I 
could,  be  more  than  four  years  in  getting  through 
college,  if  necessary,  provided  he  also  could  be 
sent  to  study." 

The  matter  was  referred  to  Daniel's  mother, 
and  she  and  his  father  talked  it  over  together. 
They  knew  that  it  would  take  all  the  property 
they  had  to  educate  both  the  boys.  They  knew 
that  they  would  have  to  do  without  many 
comforts,  and  that  they  would  have  a  hard 
struggle  to  make  a  living  while  the  boys  were 
studying. 

But  the  mother  said,  "I  will  trust  the  boys."1 
And  it  was  settled  that  Ezekiel,  too,  should  have 
a  chance  to  make  his  mark  in  the  world. 

He  was  now  a  grown-up  man.  He  was  tall 
and  strong  and  ambitious.  He  entered  college 
the  very  year  that  Daniel  graduated. 

As  for  Daniel,  he  was  now  ready  to  choose  a 
profession.  What  should  it  be  ? 

His  father  wanted  him  to  become  a  lawyer. 
And  so,  to  please  his  parents,  he  went  home  and 
began  to  read  law  in  the  office  of  a  Mr.  Thomp- 


148  THE   STORY  OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER 

son,  in  the  little  village  of  Salisbury,  which  ad- 
joined his  father's  farm. 

The  summer  passed  by.  It  was  very  pleasant 
to  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  read.  And  when 
the  young  man  grew  tired  of  reading,  he  could 
go  out  fishing,  or  could  spend  a  day  in  hunting 
among  the  New  Hampshire  hills. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  he  did  not  learn  very  much 
law  during  that  summer. 

But  there  was  not  a  day  that  he  did  not  think 
about  his  brother.  Ezekiel  had  done  much  to 
help  him  through  college,  and  now  ought  he  not 
to  help  Ezekiel  ? 

But  what  could  he  do  ? 

He  had  a  good  education,  and  his  first  thought 
was  that  he  might  teach  school,  and  thus  earn  a 
little  money  for  Ezekiel. 

The  people  of  Fryeburg,  in  Maine,  wanted  him 
to  take  charge  of  the  academy  in  their  little  town. 
And  so,  early  in  the  fall,  he  decided  to  take  up 
with  their  offer. 

He  was  to  have  three  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
for  the  year's  work,  and  that  would  help  Ezekiel 
a  great  deal. 


HOW   DANIEL  TAUGHT   SCHOOL  149 

He  bade  good-bye  to  Mr.  Thompson  and  his 
little  law  office,  and  made  ready  to  go  to  his  new 
field  of  labor.  There  were  no  railroads  at  that 
time,  and  a  journey  of  even  a  few  miles  was  a 
great  undertaking. 

Daniel  had  bought  a  horse  for  twenty-four 
dollars.  In  one  end  of  an  old-fashioned  pair  of 
saddlebags  he  put  his  Sunday  clothes,  and  in  the 
other  he  packed  his  books. 

He  laid  the  saddlebags  upon  the  horse,  then 
he  mounted  and  rode  off  over  the  hills  toward 
Fryeburg,  sixty  miles  away. 

He  was  not  yet  quite  twenty  years  old.  He  was 
very  slender,  and  nearly  six  feet  in  height.  His 
face  was  thin  and  dark.  His  eyes  were  black 
and  bright  and  penetrating  —  no  person  who  once 
saw  them  could  ever  forget  them. 

Young  as  he  was,  he  was  very  successful  as  a 
teacher  during  that  year  which  he  spent  at  Frye- 
burg. The  trustees  of  the  academy  were  so  highly 
pleased  that  they  wanted  him  to  stay  a  second 
year.  They  promised  to  raise  his  salary  to  five 
or  six  hundred  dollars,  and  to  give  him  a  house 
and  a  piece  of  land. 


150  THE   STORY  OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER 

He  was  greatly  tempted  to  give  up  all  further 
thoughts  of  becoming  a  lawyer. 

"What  shall  I  do  ?"  he  said  to  himself.  "Shall 
I  say,  'Yes,  gentlemen,'  and  sit  down  here  to 
spend  my  days  in  a  kind  of  comfortable  privacy  ?" 

But  his  father  was  anxious  that  he  should  re- 
turn to  the  study  of  the  law.  And  so  he  was 
not  long  in  making  up  his  mind. 

In  a  letter  to  one  of  his  friends  he  said:  "I 
shall  make  one  more  trial  of  the  law  in  the  ensuing 
autumn. 

"If  I  prosecute  the  profession,  I  pray  God  to 
fortify  me  against  its  temptations.  To  be  honest, 
to  be  capable,  to  be  faithful  to  my  client  and  my 
conscience." 

Early  the  next  September,  he  was  again  in  Mr. 
Thompson's  little  law  office.  All  the  money  that 
he  had  saved,  while  at  Fryeburg,  was  spent  to 
help  Ezekiel  through  college. 

IX. --DANIEL  GOES  TO  BOSTON 

For  a  year  and  a  half,  young  Daniel  Webster 
stayed  in  the  office  of  Mr.  Thompson.  He  had 
now  fully  made  up  his  mind  as  to  what  profes- 


DANIEL  GOES  TO  BOSTON  151 

sion  he  would  follow ;  and  so  he  was  a  much 
better  student  than  he  had  been  before. 

He  read  many  law  books  with  care.  He  read 
Hume's  History  of  England,  and  spent  a  good 
deal  of  time  with  the  Latin  classics. 

"At  this  period  of  my  life,"  he  afterwards  said. 
"I  passed  a  great  deal  of  time  alone. 

"My  amusements  were  fishing  and  shooting 
and  riding,  and  all  these  were  without  a  compan- 
ion. I  loved  this  solitude  then,  and  have  loved 
it  ever  since,  and  love  it  still." 

The  Webster  family  were  still  very  poor. 
Judge  Webster  was  now  too  old  to  do  much  work 
of  any  kind.  The  farm  had  been  mortgaged  for 
all  that  it  was  worth.  It  was  hard  to  find  money 
enough  to  keep  Daniel  at  his  law  studies  and 
Ezekiel  in  college. 

At  last  it  became  necessary  for  one  of  the 
young  men  to  do  something  that  would  help 
matters  along.  Ezekiel  decided  that  he  would 
leave  college  for  a  time  and  try  to  earn  enough 
money  to  meet  the  present  needs  of  the  family. 
Through  some  of  his  friends  he  obtained  a  small 
private  school  in  Boston. 


152  THE  STORY  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

There  were  very  few  pupils  in  Ezekiel  Web- 
ster's school.  But  there  were  so  many  branches 
to  be  taught  that  he  could  not  find  time  to  hear 
all  the  recitations.  So,  at  last,  he  sent  word  to 
Daniel  to  come  down  and  help  him.  If  Daniel 
would  teach  an  hour  and  a  half  each  day,  he 
should  have  enough  money  to  pay  his  board. 

Daniel  was  pleased  with  the  offer.  He  had 
long  wanted  to  study  law  in  Boston,  and  here 
was  his  opportunity.  And  so,  early  in  March, 
1804,  he  joined  his  brother  in  that  city,  and  was 
soon  doing  what  he  could  to  help  him  in  his  little 
school. 

There  was  in  Boston,  at  that  time,  a  famous  law- 
yer whose  name  was  Christopher  Gore.  While 
Daniel  Webster  was  wondering  how  he  could 
best  carry  on  his  studies  in  the  city,  he  heard 
that  Mr.  Gore  had  no  clerk  in  his  office. 

"How    I    should    like    to    read    law   with    Mr 
Gore  !"  he  said  to  Ezekiel. 

"Yes,"  said  Ezekiel.  "You  could  not  want  a 
better  tutor." 

"I  mean  to  see  him  to-day  and  apply  for  a 
place  in  his  office,"  said  Daniel. 


DANIEL  GOES  TO  BOSTON  153 

It  was  with  many  misgivings  that  the  young 
man  went  into  the  presence  of  the  great  lawyer. 
We  will  let  him  tell  the  story  in  his  own  words : 

"I  was  from  the  country,  I  said  ;  —  had  studied 
law  for  two  years  ;  had  come  to  Boston  to  study 
a  year  more ;  had  heard  that  he  had  no  clerk ; 
thought  it  possible  he  would  receive  one. 

"I  told  him  that  I  came  to  Boston  to  work, 
not  to  play ;  was  most  desirous,  on  all  accounts, 
to  be  his  pupil ;  and  all  I  ventured  to  ask  at  pres- 
ent was,  that  he  would  keep  a  place  for  me  in 
his  office,  till  I  could  write  to  New  Hampshire  for 
proper  letters  showing  me  worthy  of  it." 

Mr.  Gore  listened  to  this  speech  very  kindly, 
and  then  bade  Daniel  be  seated  while  he  should 
have  a  short  talk  with  him. 

When  at  last  the  young  man  rose  to  go,  Mr. 
Gore  said:  "My  young  friend,  you  look  as  if 
you  might  be  trusted.  You  say  you  came  to 
study  and  not  to  waste  time.  I  will  take  you  at 
your  word.  You  may  as  well  hang  up  your  hat 
at  once." 

And  this  was  the  beginning  of  Daniel  Web- 
ster's career  in  Boston. 


154  THE  STORY  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

He  must  have  done  well  in  Mr.  Gore's  office ; 
for,  in  a  few  months,  he  was  admitted  to  the  prac- 
tice of  law  in  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  in 
Boston. 

It  was  at  some  time  during  this  same  winter  that 
Daniel  was  offered  the  position  of  clerk  in  the 
County  Court  at  home.  His  father,  as  you  will 
remember,  was  one  of  the  judges  in  this  court, 
and  he  was  very  much  delighted  at  the  thought 
that  his  son  would  be  with  him. 

The  salary  would  be  about  fifteen  hundred 
dollars  a  year  —  and  that  was  a  great  sum  to 
Daniel  as  well  as  to  his  father.  The  mortgage 
on  the  farm  could  be  paid  off ;  Ezekiel  could 
finish  his  course  in  college ;  and  life  would  be 
made  easier  for  them  all. 

At  first  Daniel  was  as  highly  pleased  as  his 
father.  But  after  he  had  talked  with  Mr.  Gore, 
he  decided  not  to  accept  the  offered  position. 

'Your  prospects  as  a  lawyer,"  said  Mr.  Gore, 
''are  good  enough  to  encourage  you  to  go  on. 
Go  on,  and  finish  your  studies.  You  are  poor 
enough,  but  there  are  greater  evils  than  poverty. 
Live  on  no  man's  favor.  Pursue  your  profession  ; 


DANIEL  GOES  TO  BOSTON  155 

make  yourself  useful  to  your  friends  and  a  little 
formidable  to  your  enemies,  and  you  have  noth- 
ing to  fear." 

A  few  days  after  that,  Daniel  paid  a  visit  to 
his  father.  The  judge  received  him  very  kindly, 
but  he  was  greatly  disappointed  when  the  young 
man  told  him  that  he  had  made  up  his  mind  not 
to  take  the  place. 

With  his  deep-set,  flashing  eyes,  he  looked  at 
his  son  for  a  moment  as  though  in  anger.  Then 
he  said,  very  slowly  : 

"  Well,  my  son,  your  mother  has  always  said 
that  you  would  come  to  something  or  nothing  - 
she  was  not  sure  which.     I  think  you  are  now 
about  settling  that  doubt  for  her." 

A  few  weeks  after  this,  Daniel,  as  I  have  al- 
ready told  you,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Boston. 
But  he  did  not  think  it  best  to  begin  his  practice 
there. 

He  knew  how  anxious  his  father  was  that  he 
should  be  near  him.  He  wanted  to  do  all  that  he 
could  to  cheer  and  comfort  the  declining  years 
of  the  noble  man  who  had  sacrificed  everything 
for  him.  And  so,  in  the  spring  of  1805,  he  set- 


156  THE   STORY  OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER 

tied   in   the   town   of   Boscawen,    six   miles   from 
home,  and  put  up  at  his  office  door  this  sign  : 


D.  WEBSTER,  Attorney 


X.  —  LAWYER  AND  CONGRESSMAN 

When  Daniel  Webster  had  been  in  Boscawen 
nearly  two  years,  his  father  died.  It  was  then 
decided  that  Ezekiel  should  come  and  take  charge 
of  the  home  farm,  and  care  for  their  mother. 

Ezekiel  had  not  yet  graduated  from  college, 
but  he  had  read  law  and  was  hoping  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar.  He  was  a  man  of  much  nat- 
ural ability,  and  many  people  believed  that  he 
would  some  day  become  a  very  famous  lawyer. 

And  so,  in  the  autumn  of  1807,  Daniel  gave  up 
to  his  brother  the  law  business  which  he  had  in 
Boscawen,  and  removed  to  the  city  of  Portsmouth. 

He  was  now  twenty-five  years  old.  In  Ports- 
mouth he  would  find  plenty  of  work  to  do ;  it 
would  be  the  very  kind  of  work  that  he  liked. 
He  was  now  well  started  on  the  road  toward 
greatness. 

The  very  next  year,  he  was  married  to  Miss 


LAWYER  AND  CONGRESSMAN  157 

Grace  Fletcher,  the  daughter  of  a  minister  in 
Hopkinton.  The  happy  couple  began  house- 
keeping in  a  small,  modest,  wooden  house,  in 
Portsmouth  ;  and  there  they  lived,  very  plainly 
and  without  pretension,  for  several  years. 

Mr.  Webster's  office  was  "a  common,  ordinary- 
looking  room,  with  less  furniture  and  more  books 

'than  common.  He  had  a  small  inner  room, 
opening  from  the  larger,  rather  an  unusual  thing." 
It  was  not  long  until  the  name  of  Daniel  Web- 
ster was  known  all  over  New  Hampshire.  Those 
who  were  acquainted  with  him  said  that  he  was 
the  smartest  young  lawyer  in  Portsmouth.  They 
said  that  if  he  kept  on  in  the  way  that  he  had 
started,  there  were  great  things  in  store  for  him. 

The  country  people  told  wonderful  stories 
about  him.  They  said  he  was  as  black  as  a 
coal --but  of  course  they  had  never  seen  him. 
They  believed  that  he  could  gain  any  case  in 

,  court  that  he  chose  to  manage  —  and  in  this  they 
were  about  right. 

There  was  another  great  lawyer  in  Portsmouth. 
His  name  was  Jeremiah  Mason,  and  he  was  much 
older  than  Mr.  Webster.  Indeed,  he  was  already 


158  THE  STORY  OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER 

a  famous  man  when  Daniel  first  began  the  prac- 
tice of  law. 

The  young  lawyer  and  the  older  one  soon  be- 
came warm  friends ;  and  yet  they  were  often  op- 
posed to  each  other  in  the  courts.  Daniel  was 
always  obliged  to  do  his  best  when  Mr.  Mason 
was  against  him.  This  caused  him  to  be  very 
careful.  It  no  doubt  made  him  become  a  better 
lawyer  than  he  otherwise  would  have  been. 

While  Webster  was  thus  quietly  practicing 
law  in  New  Hampshire,  trouble  was  brewing  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  England.  The 
English  were  doing  much  to  hinder  American 
merchants  from  trading  with  foreign  countries. 

They  claimed  the  right  to  search  American 
vessels  for  seamen  who  had  deserted  from  the 
British  service.  And  it  is  said  that  American 
sailors  were  often  dragged  from  their  own  vessels 
and  forced  to  serve  on  board  the  English  ships. 

Matters  kept  getting  worse  and  worse  for  sev- 
eral years.  At  last,  in  June,  1812,  the  United 
States  declared  war  against  England. 

Daniel  Webster  was  opposed  to  this  war,  and 
he  made  several  speeches  against  it.  He  said 


LAWYER  AND  CONGRESSMAN  159 

that,  although  we  had  doubtless  suffered  many 
wrongs,  there  was  more  cause  for  war  with  France 
than  with  England.  And  then,  the  United  States 
had  no  navy,  and  hence  was  not  ready  to  go  to 
war  with  any  nation. 

Webster's  influence  in  New  Hampshire  was  so 
great  that  he  persuaded  many  of  the  people  of 
that  state  to  think  just  as  he  thought  on  this 
subject.  They  nominated  him  as  their  represent- 
ative in  Congress ;  and  when  the  time  came, 
they  elected  him. 

It  was  on  the  24th  of  May,  1813,  that  he  first 
took  his  seat  in, Congress.  He  was  then  thirty- 
one  years  old. 

In  that  same  Congress  there  were  two  other 
young  men  who  afterwards  made  their  names 
famous  in  the  history  of  their  country.  One  was 
Henry  Clay,  of  Kentucky.  The  other  was  John 
C.  Calhoun,  of  South  Carolina.  Both  were  a 
little  older  than  Webster ;  both  had  already 
made  some  mark  in  public  life  ;  and  both  were  in 
favor  of  the  war. 

During  his  first  year  in  Congress,  Mr.  Web- 
ster made  some  stirring  speeches  in  support  of 


160  THE   STORY  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

his  own  opinions.  In  this  way,  as  well  by  his 
skill  in  debate,  he  made  himself  known  as  a 
young  man  of  more  than  common  ability  and 
promise. 

Chief  Justice  Marshall,  who  was  then  at  the 
head  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
said  of  him  :  "  I  have  never  seen  a  man  of  whose 
intellect  I  had  a  higher  opinion." 

In  1814,  the  war  that  had  been  going  on  so 
long  came  to  an  end.  But  now  there  were  other 
subjects  which  claimed  Mr.  Webster's  attention 
in  Congress. 

Then,  as  now,  there  were  important  questions 
regarding  the  money  of  the  nation  ;  and  upon 
these  questions  there  was  great  difference  of 
opinion.  Daniel  Webster's  speeches,  in  favor  of  a 
sound  currency,  did  much  to  maintain  the  national 
credit  and  to  save  the  country  from  bankruptcy. 

The  people  of  New  Hampshire  were  so  well 
pleased  with  the  record  which  he  made  in  Con- 
gress that,  when  his  first  term  expired,  they  re- 
elected  him  for  a  second. 


THE   DARTMOUTH   COLLEGE  CASE  161 

XI. --THE  DARTMOUTH  COLLEGE  CASE 

In  1816,  before  his  second  term  in  Congress 
had  expired,  Daniel  Webster  removed  with  his 
family  to  Boston.  He  had  lived  in  Portsmouth 
nine  years,  and  he  now  felt  that  he  needed  a 
wider  field  for  the  exercise  of  his  talents. 

He  was  now  no  longer  the  slender,  delicate 
person  that  he  had  been  in  his  boyhood  and 
youth.  He  was  a  man  of  noble  mien  —  a  sturdy, 
dignified  personage,  who  bore  the  marks  of  great- 
ness upon  him.  People  said,  "When  Daniel 
Webster  walked  the  streets  of  Boston,  he  made 
the  buildings  look  small." 

As  soon  as  his  term  in  Congress  had  expired, 
he  began  the  practice  of  law  in  Boston. 

For  nearly  seven  years  he  devoted  himself 
strictly  to  his  profession.  Of  course,  he  at  once 
took  his  place  as  the  leading  lawyer  of  New  Eng- 
land. Indeed,  he  soon  became  known  as  the 
ablest  counselor  and  advocate  in  America. 

The  best  business  of  the  country  now  came  to 
him.  His  income  was  very  large,  amounting  to 
more  than  $20,000  a  year. 


1 62  THE  STORY  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

And  during  this  time  there  was  no  harder 
worker  than  he.  In  fact,  his  natural  genius  could 
have  done  but  little  for  him,  had  it  not  been  for 
his  untiring  industry. 

One  of  his  first  great  victories  in  law  was  that 
which  is  known  as  the  Dartmouth  College  case. 
The  lawmakers  of  New  Hampshire  had  attempted 
to  pass  a  law  to  alter  the  charter  of  the  college. 
By  doing  this  they  would  endanger  the  useful- 
ness and  prosperity  of  that  great  school,  in  order 
to  favor  the  selfish  projects  of  its  enemies. 

Daniel  Webster  undertook  to  defend  the  college. 
The  speech  which  he  made  before  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  was  a  masterly  effort. 

"Sir,"  he  said,  "you  may  destroy  this  little  in- 
stitution --it  is  weak,  it  is  in  your  hands.  I  know 
it  is  one  of  the  lesser  lights  in  the  literary  horizon 
of  our  country.  You  may  put  it  out. 

"  But  if  you  do  so,  you  must  carry  through 
your  work  !  You  must  extinguish,  one  after  an- 
other, all  those  greater  lights  of  science  which, 
for  more  than  a  century,  have  thrown  their  light 
over  our  land  !" 

He  won  the  case ;    and  this,   more  than  any- 


WEBSTER'S  GREAT  ORATIONS  163 

thing  else,  helped  to  gain  for  him  the  reputation 
of  being  the  ablest  lawyer  in  the  United  States. 

XII.  --  WEBSTER'S  GREAT  ORATIONS 

In  1820,  when  he  was  thirty-eight  years  old, 
Daniel  Webster  was  chosen  to  deliver  an  oration 
at  a  great  meeting  of  New  Englanders  at  Plym- 
outh, Massachusetts. 

Plymouth  is  the  place  where  the  Pilgrims 
landed  in  1620.  Just  two  hundred  years  had 
passed  since  that  time,  and  this  meeting  was  to 
celebrate  the  memory  of  the  brave  men  and 
women  who  had  risked  so  much  to  found  new 
homes  in  what  was  then  a  bleak  wilderness. 

The  speech  which  Mr.  Webster  delivered  was  one 
of  the  greatest  ever  heard  in  America.  It  placed 
him  at  once  at  the  head  of  American  orators. 

John  Adams,  the  second  President  of  the 
United  States,  was  then  living,  a  very  old  man. 
He  said,  "This  oration  will  be  read  five  hundred 
years  hence  with  as  much  rapture  as  it  was  heard. 
It  ought  to  be  read  at  the  end  of  every  century, 
and,  indeed,  at  the  end  of  every  year,  forever 
and  ever." 


164  THE  STORY  OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER 

But  this  was  only  the  first  of  many  great  ad- 
dresses by  Mr.  Webster.  In  1825,  he  delivered 
an  oration  at  the  laying  of  the  corner  stone  of 
the  Bunker  Hill  monument.  Eighteen  years 
later,  when  that  monument  was  finished,  he 
delivered  another.  Many  of  Mr.  Webster's 
admirers  think  that  these  two  orations  are  his 
masterpieces. 

On  July  4th,  1826,  the  United  States  had  been 
independent  just  fifty  years.  On  that  day  there 
passed  away  two  of  the  greatest  men  of  the 
country  -  -  John  Adams  and  Thomas  Jefferson. 

Both  were  ex-Presidents,  and  both  had  been 
leaders  in  the  councils  of  the  nation.  It  was  in 
memory  of  these  two  patriots  that  Daniel  Web- 
ster was  called  to  deliver  an  oration  in  Faneuil 
Hall,  Boston. 

No  other  funeral  oration  has  ever  been  deliv- 
ered in  any  age  or  country  that  was  equal  to 
this  in  eloquence.  Like  all  his  other  discourses, 
it  was  full  of  patriotic  feeling. 

'This  lovely  land,"  he  said,  "this  glorious  lib- 
erty, these  benign  institutions,  the  dear  purchase 
of  our  fathers,  are  ours  ;  ours  to  enjoy,  ours  to 


MR.   WEBSTER   IN  THE   SENATE  165 

preserve,  ours  to  transmit.  Generations  past  and 
generations  to  come  hold  us  responsible  for  this 
sacred  trust. 

"Our  fathers,  from  behind,  admonish  us  with 
their  anxious,  paternal  voices ;  posterity  calls  out 
to  us  from  the  bosom  of  the  future  ;  the  world 
turns  hither  its  solicitous  eyes  ;  all,  all  conjure  us 
to  act  wisely  and  faithfully  in  the  relation  which 
we  sustain." 

Most  of  his  other  great  speeches  were  deliv- 
ered in  Congress,  and  are,  therefore,  political  in 
tone  and  subject. 

Great  as  Daniel  Webster  was  in  politics  and 
in  law,  it  is  as  an  orator  and  patriot  that  his 
name  will  be  longest  remembered. 

XIII.-- MR.  WEBSTER  IN  THE  SENATE 

When  Daniel  Webster  was  forty  years  old,  the 
people  of  Boston  elected  him  to  represent  them 
in  Congress.  They  were  so  well  pleased  with  all 
that  he  did  while  there,  that  they  reflected  him 
twice. 

In  June,  1827,  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts 
chose  him  to  be  United  States  senator  for  a  term 


1 66  THE  STORY  OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER 

of  six  years.  He  was  at  that  time  the  most 
famous  man  in  Massachusetts,  and  his  name 
was  known  and  honored  in  every  state  of  the 
Union. 

After  that  he  was  reflected  to  the  same  place 
again  and  again  ;  and  for  more  than  twenty  years 
he  continued  to  be  the  distinguished  senator  from 
Massachusetts. 

I  cannot  now  tell  you  of  all  his  public  services 
during  the  long  period  that  he  sat  in  Congress. 
Indeed,  there  are  some  things  that  you  would 
find  hard  to  understand  until  you  have  learned 
more  about  the  history  of  our  country.  But  you 
will  by-and-by  read  of  them  in  the  larger  books 
which  you  will  study  at  school ;  and,  no  doubt, 
you  will  also  read  some  of  his  great  addresses 
and  orations. 

It  was  in  1830  that  he  delivered  the  most  fa- 
mous of  all  his  speeches  in  the  senate  chamber  of 
the  United  States.  This  speech  is  commonly 
called,  "The  Reply  to  Hayne." 

I  shall  not  here  try  to  explain  the  purport  of 
Mr.  Hayne's  speeches  —  for  there  were  two  of 
them.  I  shall  not  try  to  describe  the  circum- 


MR.  WEBSTER   IN  THE  SENATE  167 

stances  which  led  Mr.  Webster  to  make  his  fa- 
mous reply  to  them. 

But  I  will  quote  Mr.  Webster's  closing  sen- 
tences. Forty  years  ago  the  schoolboys  all  over 
the  country  were  accustomed  to  memorize  and 
declaim  these  patriotic  utterances. 

"When  my  eyes  shall  be  turned  to  behold,  for 
the  last  time,  the  sun  in  heaven,  may  I  not  see 
him  shining  on  the  broken  and  dishonored  frag- 
ments of  a  once  glorious  Union  ;  on  states  dis- 
severed, discordant,  belligerent,  on  a  land  rent 
with  civil  feuds,  or  drenched,  it  may  be,  in  fra- 
ternal blood  ! 

"Let  their  last  feeble  and  lingering  glance 
rather  behold  the  gorgeous  ensign  of  the  repub- 
lic, now  known  and  honored  throughout  the 
earth,  still  high  advanced,  its  arms  and  trophies 
streaming  in  their  original  luster,  not  a  stripe 
erased  or  polluted,  not  a  single  star  obscured, 
bearing  for  its  motto  no  such  miserable  interrog- 
atory, 'What  is  all  this  worth  ?'  nor  those  other 
words  of  delusion  and  folly,  'Liberty  first  and 
Union  afterwards;'  but  everywhere,  spread  all 
over  in  characters  of  living  light,  blazing  on  all 


1 68  THE  STORY  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

its  folds,  as  they  float  over  the  land,  and  in  every 
wind  under  the  whole  heavens,  that  other  senti- 
ment, dear  to  every  American  heart  —  Liberty 
and  Union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  inseparable  !" 

In  1841,  Daniel  Webster  resigned  his  seat  in 
the  senate.  He  did  this  in  order  to  become  sec- 
retary of  state  in  the  cabinet  of  the  newly  elected 
President,  William  Henry  Harrison. 

But  President  Harrison  died  on  the  5th  of 
April,  after  having  held  his  office  just  one  month ; 
and  his  place  was  taken  by  the  vice-president, 
John  Tyler.  Mr.  Webster  now  felt  that  his  po- 
sition in  the  cabinet  would  not  be  a  pleasant  one  ; 
but  he  continued  to  hold  it  for  nearly  two  years. 

His  most  important  act  as  secretary  of  state 
was  to  conclude  a  treaty  with  England  which 
fixed  the  northeastern  boundary  of  the  United 
States.  This  treaty  is  known  in  history  as  the 
Ashburton  Treaty. 

In  1843,  Mr.  Webster  resigned  his  place  in 
President  Tyler's  cabinet.  But  he  was  not  al- 
lowed to  remain  long  in  private  life.  Two  years 
later  he  was  again  elected  to  the  United  States 
senate. 


MR.  WEBSTER   IN   PRIVATE   LIFE  169 

About  this  time,  Texas  was  annexed  to  the 
United  States.  But  Mr.  Webster  did  not  favor 
this,  for  he  believed  that  such  an  act  was  con- 
trary to  the  Constitution  of  our  country. 

He  did  all  that  he  could  to  keep  our  government 
from  making  war  upon  Mexico.  But  after  this 
war  had  been  begun,  he  was  a  firm  friend  of  the 
soldiers  who  took  part  in  it,  and  he  did  much  to 
provide  for  their  safety  and  comfort. 

Among  these  soldiers  was  Edward,  the  second 
son  of  Daniel  Webster.  He  became  a  major  in 
the  main  division  of  the  army,  and  died  in  the 
City  of  Mexico. 

XIV. --MR.  WEBSTER  IN  PRIVATE  LIFE 

Let  us  now  go  back  a  little  way  in  our  story, 
and  learn  something  about  Mr.  Webster's  home 
and  private  life. 

In  1831,  Mr.  Webster  bought  a  large  farm  at 
Marshfield,  in  the  southeastern  part  of  Massachu- 
setts, not  far  from  the  sea. 

He  spent  a  great  deal  of  money  in  improving  this 
farm  ;  and  in  the  end  it  was  as  fine  a  country  seat 
as  one  might  see  anywhere  in  New  England. 


MR.   WEBSTER   IN   PRIVATE   LIFE  171 

When  he  became  tired  with  the  many  cares  of 
his  busy  life,  Mr.  Webster  could  always  find  rest 
and  quiet  days  at  Marshfield.  He  liked  to  dress 
himself  as  a  farmer,  and  stroll  about  the  fields 
looking  at  the  cattle  and  at  the  growing  crops. 

"I  had  rather  be  here  than  in  the  senate,"  he 
would  say. 

But  his  life  was  clouded  with  many  sorrows. 
Long  before  going  to  Marshfield,  his  two  eldest 
children  were  laid  in  the  grave.  Their  mother 
followed  them .  just  one  year  before  Mr.  Web- 
ster's first  entry  into  the  United  States  senate. 

In  1829,  his  brother  Ezekiel  died  suddenly 
while  speaking  in  court  at  Concord.  Ezekiel  had 
never  cared  much  for  politics,  but  as  a  lawyer  in 
his  native  state,  he  had  won  many  honors.  His 
death  came  as  a  great  shock  to  everybody  that 
knew  him.  To  his  brother  it  brought  overwhelm- 
ing sorrow. 

When  Daniel  Webster  was  nearly  forty-eight 
years  old,  he  married  a  second  wife.  She  was  the 
daughter  of  a  New  York  merchant,  and  her  name 
was  Caroline  Bayard  Le  Roy.  She  did  much  to 
lighten  the  disappointments  of  his  later  life,  and 


172  THE  STORY  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

they  lived  together  happily  for  more  than  twenty 
years. 

In  1839,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webster  made  a  short 
visit  to  England.  The  fame  of  the  great  orator 
had  gone  before  him,  and  he  was  everywhere  re- 
ceived with  honor.  The  greatest  men  of  the  time 
were  proud  to  meet  him. 

Henry  Hallam,  the  historian,  wrote  of  him : 
"Mr.  Webster  approaches  as  nearly  to  the  beau 
ideal  of  a  republican  senator  as  any  man  that  I 
have  ever  seen  in  the  course  of  my  life." 

Even  the  Queen  invited  him  to  dine  with  her ; 
and  she  was  much  pleased  with  his  dignified 
ways  and  noble  bearing. 

And,  indeed,  his  appearance  was  such  as  to 
win  the  respect  of  all  who  saw  him.  When  he 
walked  the  streets  of  London,  people  would  stop 
and  wonder  who  the  noble  stranger  was ;  and 
workingmen  whispered  to  one  another:  'There 
goes  a  king  !" 

XV.  -  -  THE  LAST  YEARS 

Many  people  believed  that  Daniel  Webster 
would  finally  be  elected  President  of  the  United 


THE  LAST  YEARS  173 

States.  And,  indeed,  there  was  no  man  in  all 
this  country  who  was  better  fitted  for  that  high 
position  than  he. 

But  it  so  happened  that  inferior  men,  who  were 
willing  to  stoop  to  the  tricks  of  politics,  always 
stepped  in  before  him. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  question  of  slavery  was 
becoming,  every  day,  more  and  more  important. 
It  was  the  one  subject  which  claimed  everybody's 
attention. 

Should  slavery  be  allowed  in  the  territories  ? 

There  was  great  excitement  all  over  the  country. 
There  were  many  hot  debates  in  Congress.  It 
seemed  as  though  the  Union  would  be  destroyed. 

At  last,  the  wiser  and  cooler-headed  leaders  in 
Congress  said,  "Let  each  side  give  up  a  little  to 
the  other.  Let  us  have  a  compromise." 

On  the  yth  of  March,  1850,  Mr.  Webster  de- 
livered a  speech  before  the  senate.  It  was  a 
speech  in  favor  of  compromise,  in  favor  of  con- 
ciliation. 

He  thought  that  this  was  the  only  way  to  pre- 
serve the  Union.  And  he  was  willing  to  sacrifice 
everything  for  the  Constitution  and  the  Union. 


174  THE  STORY  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

He  declared  that  all  the  ends  he  aimed  at  were 
for  his  country's  good. 

"I  speak  to-day  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Union,"  he  said.  "Hear  me  for  my  cause!  I 
speak  to-day  out  of  a  solicitous  and  anxious 
heart,  for  the  restoration  to  the  country  of  that 
quiet  and  harmony,  which  make  the  blessings 
of  this  Union  so  rich  and  so  dear  to  us  all." 

He  then  went  on  to  defend  the  law  known  as 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  He  declared  that  this 
law  was  in  accordance  with  the  Constitution, 
and  hence  it  should  be  enforced  according  to  its 
true  meaning. 

The  speech  was  a  great  disappointment  to  his 
friends.  They  said  that  he  had  deserted  them  ;  that 
he  had  gone  over  to  their  enemies  ;  that  he  was 
no  longer  a  champion  of  freedom,  but  of  slavery. 

Those  who  had  been  his  warmest  supporters, 
now  turned  against  him. 

A  few  months  after  this,  President  Taylor  died. 
The  vice-president,  Millard  Fillmore,  then  be- 
came President.  Mr.  Fillmore  was  in  sympathy 
with  Daniel  Webster,  and  soon  gave  him  a  seat 
in  his  cabinet  as  secretary  of  state. 


THE  LAST  YEARS  175 

This  was  the  second  time  that  Mr.  Webster 
had  been  called  to  fill  this  high  and  honorable 
position.  But,  under  President  Fillmore,  he  did 
no  very  great  or  important  thing. 

He  was  still  the  leading  man  in  the  Whig 
party;  and  he  hoped,  in  1852,  to  be  nominated 
for  the  presidency.  But  in  this  he  was  again 
disappointed. 

He  was  now  an  old  man.  He  had  had  great 
successes  in  life  ;  but  he  felt  that  he  had  failed 
at  the  end  of  the  race.  His  health  was  giving 
way.  He  went  home  to  Marshfield  for  the  quiet 
and  rest  which  he  so  much  needed. 

In  May,  that  same  year,  he  was  thrown  from 
his  carriage  and  severely  hurt.  From  this  hurt 
he  never  recovered.  He  offered  to  resign  his 
seat  in  the  cabinet,  but  Mr.  Fillmore  would  not 
listen  to  this. 

In  September  he  became  very  feeble,  and  his 
friends  knew  that  the  end  was  near.  On  the 
24th  of  October,  1852,  he  died.  He  was  nearly 
seventy-one  years  old. 

In  every  part  of  the  land  his  death  was  sin- 
cerely mourned.  Both  friends  and  enemies  felt 


176  THE  STORY  OF   DANIEL  WEBSTER 

that  a  great  man  had  fallen.  They  felt  that  this 
country  had  lost  its  leading  statesman,  its  noblest 
patriot,  its  worthiest  citizen. 

Rufus  Choate,  who  had  succeeded  him  as  the 
foremost  lawyer  in  New  England,  delivered  a 
great  oration  upon  his  life  and  character.  He 
said  : 

"Look  in  how  manly  a  sort,  in  how  high  a 
moral  tone,  Mr.  Webster  uniformly  dealt  with 
the  mind  of  his  country. 

"Where  do  you  find  him  flattering  his  coun- 
trymen, indirectly  or  directly,  for  a  vote  ?  On 
what  did  he  ever  place  himself  but  good  counsels 
and  useful  service  ? 

"Who  ever  heard  that  voice,  cheering  the 
people  on  to  rapacity,  to  injustice,  to  a  vain  and 
guilty  glory  ? 

"How  anxiously,  rather,  did  he  prefer  to  teach, 
that  by  all  possible  acquired  sobriety  of  mind, 
by  asking  reverently  of  the  past,  by  obedience 
to  the  law,  by  habits  of  patient  labor,  by  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  mind,  by  the  fear  and  worship  of 
God,  we  educate  ourselves  for  the  future  that  is 
revealing." 


THE    STORY    OF 
ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 


I. — THE  KENTUCKY  HOME 

Not  far  from  Hodgensville,  in  Kentucky,  there 
once  lived  a  man  whose  name  was  Thomas  Lin- 
coln. This  man  had  built  for  himself  a  little  log 
cabin  by  the  side  of  a  brook,  where  there  was  an 
ever-flowing  spring  of  water. 

There  was  but  one  room  in  this  cabin.  On  the 
side  next  to  the  brook  there  was  a  low  doorway ; 
and  at  one  end  there  was  a  large  fireplace,  built 
of  rough  stones  and  clay. 

The  chimney  was  very  broad  at  the  bottom 
and  narrow  at  the  top.  It  was  made  of  clay, 
with  flat  stones  and  slender  sticks  laid  around 
the  outside  to  keep  it  from  falling  apart. 

In  the  wall,  on  one  side  of  the  fireplace,  there 
was  a  square  hole  for  a  window.  But  there  was 
no  glass  in  this  window.  In  the  summer  it  was 

179 


i8o          THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

left  open  all  the  time.  In  cold  weather  a  deer- 
skin, or  a  piece  of  coarse  cloth,  was  hung  over 
it  to  keep  out  the  wind  and  the  snow. 

At  night,  or  on  stormy  days,  the  skin  of  a 
bear  was  hung  across  the  doorway ;  for  there  was 
no  door  on  hinges  to  be  opened  and  shut. 

There  was  no  ceiling  to  the  room.  But  the 
inmates  of  the  cabin,  by  looking  up,  could  see  the 
bare  rafters  and  the  rough  roof-boards,  which 
Mr.  Lincoln  himself  had  split  and  hewn. 

There  was  no  floor,  but  only  the  bare  ground 
that  had  been  smoothed  and  beaten  until  it  was 
as  level  and  hard  as  pavement. 

For  chairs  there  were  only  blocks  of  wood  and 
a  rude  bench  on  one  side  of  the  fireplace.  The 
bed  was  a  little  platform  of  poles,  on  which  were 
spread  the  furry  skins  of  wild  animals,  and  a 
patchwork  quilt  of  homespun  goods. 

In  this  poor  cabin,  on  the  I2th  of  February, 
1809,  a  baby  boy  was  born.  There  was  already 
one  child  in  the  family  —  a  girl,  two  years  old, 
whose  name  was  Sarah. 

The  little  boy  grew  and  became  strong  like 
other  babies,  and  his  parents  named  him  Abra- 


THE   KENTUCKY  HOME  181 

ham,  after  his  grandfather,  who  had  been  killed 
by  the  Indians  many  years  before. 

When  he  was  old  enough  to  run  about,  he  liked 
to  play  under  the  trees  by  the  cabin  door.  Some- 
times he  would  go  with  his  little  sister  into  the 
woods  and  watch  the  birds  and  the  squirrels. 

He  had  no  playmates.  He  did  not  know  the 
meaning  of  toys  or  playthings.  But  he  was  a 
happy  child  and  had  many  pleasant  ways. 

Thomas  Lincoln,  the  father,  was  a  kind-hearted 
man,  very  strong  and  brave.  Sometimes  he 
would  take  the  child  on  his  knee  and  tell  him 
strange,  true  stories  of  the  great  forest,  and  of 
the  Indians  and  the  fierce  beasts  that  roamed 
among  the  woods  and  hills. 

For  Thomas  Lincoln  had  always  lived  on  the 
wild  frontier ;  and  he  would  rather  hunt  deer 
and  other  game  in  the  forest  than  do  anything 
else.  Perhaps  this  is  why  he  was  so  poor. 
Perhaps  this  is  why  he  was  content  to  live  in 
the  little  log  cabin  with  so  few  of  the  comforts 
of  life. 

But  Nancy  Lincoln,  the  young  mother,  did  not 
complain.  She,  too,  had  grown  up  among  the 


1 82           THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

rude  scenes  of  the  backwoods.  She  had  never 
known  better  things. 

And  yet  she  was  by  nature  refined  and  gentle  ; 
and  people  who  knew  her  said  that  she  was  very 
handsome.  She  was  a  model  housekeeper,  too ; 
and  her  poor  log  cabin  was  the  neatest  and  best- 
kept  house  in  all  that  neighborhood. 

No  woman  could  be  busier  than  she.  She 
knew  how  to  spin  and  weave,  and  she  made  all 
the  clothing  for  her  family. 

She  knew  how  to  wield  the  ax  and  the  hoe ; 
and  she  could  work  on  the  farm  or  in  the  garden 
when  her  help  was  needed. 

She  had  also  learned  how  to  shoot  with  a  rifle  ; 
and  she  could  bring  down  a  deer  or  other  wild 
game  with  as  much  ease  as  could  her  husband. 
And  when  the  game  was  brought  home,  she 
could  dress  it,  she  could  cook  the  flesh  for  food, 
and  of  the  skins  she  could  make  clothing  for  her 
husband  and  children. 

There  was  still  another  thing  that  she  could 
do  —  she  could  read  ;  and  she  read  all  the  books 
that  she  could  get  hold  of.  She  taught  her  hus- 
band the  letters  of  the  alphabet ;  and  she  showed 


THE   KENTUCKY  HOME  183 

him  how  to  write  his  name.  For  Thomas  Lin- 
coln had  never  gone  to  school,  and  he  had  never 
learned  how  to  read. 

As  soon  as  little  Abraham  Lincoln  was  old 
enough  to  understand,  his  mother  read  stories  to 
him  from  the  Bible.  Then,  while  he  was  still 
very  young,  she  taught  him  to  read  the  stories 
for  himself. 

The  neighbors  thought  it  a  wonderful  thing 
that  so  small  a  boy  could  read.  There  were  very 
few  of  them  who  could  do  as  much.  Few  of  them 
thought  it  of  any  great  use  to  learn  how  to  read. 

There  were  no  schoolhouses  in  that  part  of 
Kentucky  in  those  days,  and  of  course  there 
were  no  public  schools. 

One  winter  a  traveling  schoolmaster  came 
that  way.  He  got  leave  to  use  a  cabin  not  far 
from  Mr.  Lincoln's,  and  gave  notice  that  he 
would  teach  school  for  two  or  three  weeks.  The 
people  were  too  poor  to  pay  him  for  teaching 
longer. 

The  name  of  this  schoolmaster  was  Zachariah 
Riney. 

The  young  people  for  miles  around  flocked  to 


1 84          THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

the  school.  Most  of  them  were  big  boys  and 
girls,  and  a  few  were  grown  up  young  men.  The 
only  little  child  was  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  he 
was  not  yet  five  years  old. 

There  was  only  one  book  studied  at  that  school, 
and  it  was  a  spelling  book.  It  had  some  easy 
reading  lessons  at  the  end,  but  these  were  not 
to  be  read  until  after  every  word  in  the  book  had 
been  spelled. 

You  can  imagine  how  the  big  boys  and  girls 
felt  when  Abraham  Lincoln  proved  that  he  could 
spell  and  read  better  than  any  of  them. 

II.-- WORK  AND  SORROW 

In  the  autumn,  just  after  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  eight  years  old,  his  parents  left  their  Ken- 
tucky home  and  moved  to  Spencer  county,  in 
Indiana. 

It  was  not  yet  a  year  since  Indiana  had  become 
a  state.  Land  could  be  bought  very  cheap,  and 
Mr.  Lincoln  thought  that  he  could  make  a  good 
living  there  for  his  family.  He  had  heard  also 
that  game  was  plentiful  in  the  Indiana  woods. 

It  was  not  more  than  seventy  or  eighty  miles 


WORK  AND   SORROW  185 

from  the  old  home  to  the  new.  But  it  seemed 
very  far,  indeed,  and  it  was  a  good  many  days 
before  the  travelers  reached  their  journey's  end. 
Over  a  part  of  the  way  there  was  no  road,  and 
the  movers  had  to  cut  a  path  for  themselves 
through  the  thick  woods. 

The  boy,  Abraham,  was  tall  and  very  strong 
for  his  age.  He  already  knew  how  to  handle  an 
ax,  and  few  men  could  shoot  with  a  rifle  better 
than  he.  He  was  his  father's  helper  in  all  kinds 
of  work. 

It  was  in  November  when  the  family  came  to 
the  place  which  was  to  be  their  future  home. 
Winter  was  near  at  hand.  There  was  no  house, 
nor  shelter  of  any  kind.  What  would  become  of 
the  patient,  tired  mother,  and  the  gentle  little 
sister,  who  had  borne  themselves  so  bravely  dur- 
ing the  long,  hard  journey  ? 

No  sooner  had  the  horses  been  loosed  from 
the  wagon  than  Abraham  and  his  father  were  at 
work  with  their  axes.  In  a  short  time  they  had 
built  what  they  called  a  "camp." 

This  camp  was  but  a  rude  shed,  made  of  poles 
and  thatched  with  leaves  and  branches.  It  was 


1 86  THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

enclosed  on  three  sides,  so  that  the  chill  wind* 
or  the  driving  rains  from  the  north  and  west  could 
not  enter.  The  fourth  side  was  left  open,  and  in 
front  of  it  a  fire  was  built. 

This  fire  was  kept  burning  all  the  time.  It 
warmed  the  interior  of  the  camp.  A  big  iron 
kettle  was  hung  over  it  by  means  of  a  chain  and 
pole,  and  in  this  kettle  the  fat  bacon,  the  venison, 
the  beans,  and  the  corn  were  boiled  for  the 
family's  dinner  and  supper.  In  the  hot  ashes 
the  good  mother  baked  luscious  "corn  dodgers," 
and  sometimes,  perhaps,  a  few  potatoes. 

In  one  end  of  the  camp  were  the  few  cooking 
utensils  and  little  articles  of  furniture  which  even 
the  poorest  house  cannot  do  without.  The  rest 
of  the  space  was  the  family  sitting  room  and 
bedroom.  The  floor  was  covered  with  leaves, 
and  on  these  were  spread  the  furry  skins  of  deer 
and  bears,  and  other  animals. 

It  was  in  this  camp  that  the  family  spent  their 
first  winter  in  Indiana.  How  very  cold  and 
dreary  that  winter  must  have  been  !  Think  of 
the  stormy  nights,  of  the  shrieking  wind,  of  the 
snow  and  the  sleet  and  the  bitter  frost  !  It  is 


WORK  AND   SORROW  187 

not  much  wonder  if,  before  the  spring  months 
came,  the  mother's  strength  began  to  fail. 

But  it  was  a  busy  winter  for  Thomas  Lincoln. 
Every  day  his  ax  was  heard  in  the  woods.  He 
was  clearing  the  ground,  so  that  in  the  spring  it 
might  be  planted  with  corn  and  vegetables. 

He  was  hewing  logs  for  his  new  house  ;  for  he 
had  made  up  his  mind,  now,  to  have  something 
better  than  a  cabin. 

The  woods  were  full  of  wild  animals.  It  was 
easy  for  Abraham  and  his  father  to  kill  plenty 
of  game,  and  thus  keep  the  family  supplied  with 
fresh  meat. 

And  Abraham,  with  chopping  and  hewing 
and  hunting  and  trapping,  was  very  busy  for  a 
little  boy.  He  had  but  little  time  to  play ;  and, 
since  he  had  no  playmates,  we  cannot  know 
whether  he  even  wanted  to  play. 

With  his  mother,  he  read  over  and  over  the 
Bible  stories  which  both  of  them  loved  so  well. 
And,  during  the  cold,  stormy  days,  when  he 
could  not  leave  the  camp,  his  mother  taught  him 
how  to  write. 

In  the  spring  the   new  house  was   raised.     It 


1 88           THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

was  only  a  hewed  log  house,  with  one  room  be- 
low and  a  loft  above.  But  it  was  so  much  better 
than  the  old  cabin  in  Kentucky  that  it  seemed 
like  a  palace. 

The  family  had  become  so  tired  of  living  in 
the  "camp,"  that  they  moved  into  the  new  house 
before  the  floor  was  laid,  or  any  door  hung  at 
the  doorway. 

Then  came  the  plowing  and  the  planting  and 
the  hoeing.  Everybody  was  busy  from  day- 
light to  dark.  There  were  so  many  trees  and 
stumps  that  there  was  but  little  room  for  the 
corn  to  grow. 

The  summer  passed,  and  autumn  came.  Then 
the  poor  mother's  strength  gave  out.  She  could 
no  longer  go  about  her  household  duties.  She 
had  to  depend  more  and  more  upon  the  help 
that  her  children  could  give  her. 

At  length  she  became  too  feeble  to  leave  her 
bed.  She  called  her  boy  to  her  side.  She  put 
her  arms  about  him  and  said:  "Abraham,  I  am 
going  away  from  you,  and  you  will  never  see  me 
again.  I  know  that  you  will  always  be  good 
and  kind  to  your  sister  and  father.  Try  to  live 


WORK  AND  SORROW  189 

as  I  have  taught  you,  and  to  love  your  heavenly 
Father." 

On  the  5th  of  October  she  fell  asleep,  never  to 
wake  again. 

Under  a  big  sycamore  tree,  half  a  mile  from 
the  house,  the  neighbors  dug  the  grave  for  the 
mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  And  there  they 
buried  her  in  silence  and  great  sorrow. 

There  was  no  minister  there  to  conduct  reli- 
gious services.  In  all  that  new  country  there  was 
no  church  ;  and  no  holy  man  could  be  found  to 
speak  words  of  comfort  and  hope  to  the  grieving 
ones  around  the  grave. 

But  the  boy,  Abraham,  remembered  a  travel- 
ing preacher,  whom  they  had  known  in  Ken- 
tucky. The  name  of  this  preacher  was  David 
Elkin.  If  he  would  only  come  ! 

And  so,  after  all  was  over,  the  lad  sat  down 
and  wrote  a  letter  to  David  Elkin.  He  was  only 
a  child  nine  years  old,  but  he  believed  that  the 
good  man  would  remember  his  poor  mother,  and 
come. 

It  was  no  easy  task  to  write  a  letter.  Paper 
and  ink  were  not  things  of  common  use,  as  they 


190          THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

are  with  us.  A  pen  had  to  be  made  from  the 
quill  of  a  goose. 

But  at  last  the  letter  was  finished  and  sent 
away.  How  it  was  carried  I  do  not  know;  for 
the  mails  were  few  and  far  between  in  those 
days,  and  the  postage  was  very  high.  It  is  more 
than  likely  that  some  friend,  who  was  going  into 
Kentucky,  undertook  to  have  it  finally  handed 
to  the  good  preacher. 

Months  passed.  The  leaves  were  again  on  the 
trees.  The  wild  flowers  were  blossoming  in  the 
woods.  At  last  the  preacher  came. 

He  had  ridden  a  hundred  miles  on  horseback ; 
he  had  forded  rivers,  and  traveled  through  path- 
less woods ;  he  had  dared  the  dangers  of  the  wild 
forest :  all  in  answer  to  the  lad's  beseeching  letter. 

He  had  no  hope  of  reward,  save  that  which 
is  given  to  every  man  who  does  his  duty.  He 
did  not  know  that  there  would  come  a  time  when 
the  greatest  preachers  in  the  world  would  envy 
him  his  sad  task. 

And  now  the  friends  and  neighbors  gathered 
again  under  the  great  sycamore  tree.  The  fu- 
neral sermon  was  preached.  Hymns  were  sung. 


THE  NEW  MOTHER  191 

A   prayer   was   offered.     Words   of  comfort    and 
sympathy  were  spoken. 

From  that  time  forward  the  mind  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  rilled  with  a  high  and  noble  pur-v 
pose.  In  his  earliest  childhood  his  mother  had 
taught  him  to  love  truth  and  justice,  to  be  honest 
and  upright  among  men,  and  to  reverence  God. 
These  lessons  he  never  forgot. 

Long  afterward,  when  he  was  known  as  a  very 
great  man,  he  said:  "All  that  I  am,  or  hope 
to  be,  I  owe  to  my  angel  mother." 

III. --THE  NEW  MOTHER 

The  log  house,  which  Abraham  Lincoln  called 
his  home,  was  now  more  lonely  and  cheerless 
than  before.  The  sunlight  of  his  mother's  pres- 
ence had  gone  out  of  it  forever. 

His  sister  Sarah,  twelve  years  old,  was  the 
housekeeper  and  cook.  His  father  had  not  yet 
found  time  to  lay  a  floor  in  the  house,  or  to  hang 
a  door.  There  were  great  crevices  between  the 
logs,  through  which  the  wind  and  the  rain  drifted 
on  every  stormy  day.  There  was  not  much  com- 
fort in  such  a  house. 


192          THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

But  the  lad  was  never  idle.  In  the  long  win- 
ter days,  when  there  was  no  work  to  be  done,  he 
spent  the  time  in  reading  or  in  trying  to  improve 
his  writing. 

There  were  very  few  books  in  the  cabins  of 
that  backwoods  settlement.  But  if  Abraham 
Lincoln  heard  of  one,  he  could  not  rest  till  he 
had  borrowed  it  and  read  it. 

Another  summer  passed,  and  then  another 
winter.  Then,  one  day,  Mr.  Lincoln  went  on  a 
visit  to  Kentucky,  leaving  his  two  children  and 
their  cousin,  Dennis  Hanks,  at  home  to  care  for 
the  house  and  the  farm. 

I  do  not  know  how  long  he  stayed  away,  but 
it  could  not  have  been  many  weeks.  One  eve- 
ning, the  children  were  surprised  to  see  a  four- 
horse  wagon  draw  up  before  the  door. 

Their  father  was  in  the  wagon ;  and  by  his 
side  was  a  kind-faced  woman  ;  and,  sitting  on 
the  straw  at  the  bottom  of  the  wagon-bed,  there 
were  three  well-dressed  children  —  two  girls  and 
a  boy. 

And  there  were  some  grand  things  in  the 
wagon,  too.  There  were  six  split-bottomed 


THE  NEW  MOTHER  193 

chairs,  a  bureau  with  drawers,  a  wooden  chest, 
and  a  feather  bed.  All  these  things  were  very 
wonderful  to  the  lad  and  lassie  who  had  never 
known  the  use  of  such  luxuries. 

"Abraham  and  Sarah,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  as  he 
leaped  from  the  wagon,  "I  have  brought  you  a 
new  mother  and  a  new  brother  and  two  new 
sisters." 

The  new  mother  greeted  them  very  kindly, 
and,  no  doubt,  looked  with  gentle  pity  upon 
them.  They  were  barefooted  ;  their  scant  cloth- 
ing was  little  more  than  rags  and  tatters  ;  they 
did  not  look  much  like  her  own  happy  children, 
whom  she  had  cared  for  so  well. 

And  now  it  was  not  long  until  a  great  change 
was  made  in  the  Lincoln  home.  A  floor  was 
laid,  a  door  was  hung,  a  window  was  made,  the 
crevices  between  the  logs  were  daubed  with  clay. 

The  house  was  furnished  in  fine  style,  with  the 
chairs  and  the  bureau  and  the  feather  bed.  The 
kind,  new  mother  brought  sunshine  and  hope 
into  the  place  that  had  once  been  so  cheerless. 

With  the  young  lad,  Dennis  Hanks,  there  were 
now  six  children  in  the  family.  But  all  were 


194          THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

treated  with  the  same  motherly  care.  And  so,  in 
the  midst  of  much  hard  work,  there  were  many 
pleasant  days  for  them  all. 

IV.  —  SCHOOL  AND  BOOKS 

Not  very  long  after  this,  the  people  of  the 
neighborhood  made  up  their  minds  that  they 
must  have  a  schoolhouse.  And  so,  one  day 
after  harvest,  the  men  met  together  and  chopped 
down  trees,  and  built  a  little  low-roofed  log  cabin 
to  serve  for  that  purpose. 

If  you  could  see  that  cabin  you  would  think  it 
a  queer  kind  of  schoolhouse.  There  was  no 
floor.  There  was  only  one  window,  and  in  it 
were  strips  of  greased  paper  pasted  across,  in- 
stead of  glass.  There  were  no  desks,  but  only 
rough  benches  made  of  logs  split  in  halves.  In 
one  end  of  the  room  was  a  huge  fireplace ;  at  the 
other  end  was  the  low  doorway. 

The  first  teacher  was  a  man  whose  name  was 
Azel  Dorsey.  The  term  of  school  was  very 
short ;  for  the  settlers  could  not  afford  to  pay 
him  much.  It  was  in  midwinter,  for  then  there 
was  no  work  for  the  big  boys  to  do  at  home. 


SCHOOL  AND   BOOKS  195 

And  the  big  boys,  as  well  as  the  girls  and  the 
smaller  boys,  for  miles  around,  came  in  to  learn 
what  they  could  from  Azel  Dorsey.  The  most 
of  the  children  studied  only  spelling ;  but  some 
of  the  larger  ones  learned  reading  and  writing 
and  arithmetic. 

There  were  not  very  many  scholars,  for  the 
houses  in  that  new  settlement  were  few  and  far 
apart.  School  began  at  an  early  hour  in  the 
morning,  and  did  not  close  until  the  sun  was 
down. 

Just  how  Abraham  Lincoln  stood  in  his  classes 
I  do  not  know ;  but  I  must  believe  that  he  stud- 
ied hard  and  did  everything  as  well  as  he  could. 
In  the  arithmetic  which  he  used,  he  wrote  these 
lines  : 

"Abraham  Lincoln, 
His  hand  and  pen, 
He  will  be  good, 
But  God  knows  when." 

In  a  few  weeks,  Azel  Dorsey's  school  came  to 
a  close ;  and  Abraham  Lincoln  was  again  as 
busy  as  ever  about  his  father's  farm.  After  that 
he  attended  school  only  two  or  three  short  terms. 


196          THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

If  all  his  school  days  were  put  together  they 
would  not  make  a  twelve-month. 

But  he  kept  on  reading  and  studying  at  home. 
His  stepmother  said  of  him:  "He  read  every- 
thing he  could  lay  his  hands  on.  When  he  came 
across  a  passage  that  struck  him,  he  would  write 
it  down  on  boards,  if  he  had  no  paper,  and  keep 
it  until  he  had  got  paper.  Then  he  would  copy 
it,  look  at  it,  commit  it  to  memory,  and  repeat  it." 

Among  the  books  that  he  read  were  the  Bible, 
the  Pilgrim's  Progress,  and  the  poems  of  Robert 
Burns.  One  day  he  walked  a  long  distance  to 
borrow  a  book  of  a  farmer.  This  book  was 
Weems's  Life  of  Washington.  He  read  as  much 
as  he  could  while  walking  home. 

By  that  time  it  was  dark,  and  so  he  sat  down 
by  the  chimney  and  read  by  fire  light  until  bed- 
time. Then  he  took  the  book  to  bed  with  him 
in  the  loft,  and  read  by  the  light  of  a  tallow 
candle. 

In  an  hour  the  candle  burned  out.  He  laid 
the  book  in  a  crevice  between  two  of  the  logs  of 
the  cabin,  so  that  he  might  begin  reading  again 
as  soon  as  it  was  daylight. 


SCHOOL  AND   BOOKS  197 

But  in  the  night  a  storm  came  up.  The  rain 
was  blown  in,  and  the  book  was  wet  through 
and  through. 

In  the  morning,  when  Abraham  awoke,  he  saw 
what  had  happened.  He  dried  the  leaves  as  well 
as  he  could,  and  then  finished  reading  the  book. 

As  soon  as  he  had  eaten  his  breakfast,  he  hur- 
ried to  carry  the  book  to  its  owner.  He  ex- 
plained how  the  accident  had  happened. 

"Mr.  Crawford,"  he  said,  "I  am  willing  to  pay 
you  for  the  book.  I  have  no  money  ;  but,  if  you 
will  let  me,  I  will  work  for  you  until  I  have  made 
its  price." 

Mr.  Crawford  thought  that  the  book  was 
worth  seventy-five  cents,  and  that  Abraham's 
work  would  be  worth  about  twenty-five  cents  a 
day.  And  so  the  lad  helped  the  farmer  gather 
corn  for  three  days,  and  thus  became  the  owner 
of  the  delightful  book. 

He  read  the  story  of  Washington  many  times 
over.  He  carried  the  book  with  him  to  the  field, 
and  read  it  while  he  was  following  the  plow. 

From  that  time,  Washington  was  the  one  great 
hero  whom  he  admired.  Why  could  not  he 


198  THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

model  his  own  life  after  that  of  Washington  ? 
Why  could  not  he  also  be  a  doer  of  great  things 
for  his  country  ? 

V.  --LiFE  IN  THE  BACKWOODS 

Abraham  Lincoln  now  set  to  work  with  a  will 
to  educate  himself.  His  father  thought  that  he 
did  not  need  to  learn  anything  more.  He  did 
not  see  that  there  was  any  good  in  book-learning. 
If  a  man  could  read  and  write  and  cipher,  what 
more  was  needed  ? 

But  the  good  stepmother  thought  differently ; 
and  when  another  short  term  of  school  began  in 
the  little  log  schoolhouse,  all  six  of  the  children 
from  the  Lincoln  cabin  were  among  the  scholars. 

In  a  few  weeks,  however,  the  school  had  closed  ; 
and  the  three  boys  were  again  hard  at  work, 
chopping  and  grubbing  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  clear- 
ings. They  were  good-natured,  jolly  young  fel- 
lows, and  they  lightened  their  labor  with  many 
a  joke  and  playful  prank. 

Many  were  the  droll  stories  with  which  Abra- 
ham amused  his  two  companions.  Many  were 
the  puzzling  questions  that  he  asked.  Some- 


LIFE  IN  THE   BACKWOODS  199 

times  in  the  evening,  with  the  other  five  children 
around  him,  he  would  declaim  some  piece  that 
he  had  learned  ;  or  he  would  deliver  a  speech 
of  his  own  on  some  subject  of  common  interest. 

If  you  could  see  him  as  he  then  appeared,  you 
would  hardly  think  that  such  a  boy  would  ever 
become  one  of  the  most  famous  men  of  history. 
On  his  head  he  wore  a  cap  made  from  the  skin 
of  a  squirrel  or  a  raccoon.  Instead  of  trousers 
of  cloth-,  he  wore  buckskin  breeches,  the  legs  of 
which  were  many  inches  too  short.  His  shirt 
was  of  deerskin  in  the  winter,  and  of  homespun 
tow  in  the  summer.  Stockings  he  had  none. 
His  shoes  were  of  heavy  cowhide,  and  were  worn 
only  on  Sundays  or  in  very  cold  weather. 

The  family  lived  in  such  a  way  as  to  need  very 
little  money.  Their  bread  was  made  of  corn 
meal.  Their  meat  was  chiefly  the  flesh  of  wild 
game  found  in  the  forest. 

Pewter  plates  and  wooden  trenchers  were  used 
on  the  table.  The  tea  and  coffee  cups  were  of 
painted  tin.  There  was  no  stove,  and  all  the 
cooking  was  done  on  the  hearth  of  the  big 
fireplace. 


200          THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

But  poverty  was  no  hindrance  to  Abraham 
Lincoln.  He  kept  on  with  his  reading  and  his 
studies  as  best  he  could.  Sometimes  he  would 
go  to  the  little  village  of  Gentryville,  near  by,  to 
spend  an  evening.  He  would  tell  so  many  jokes 
and  so  many  funny  stories,  that  all  the  people 
would  gather  round  him  to  listen. 

When  he  was  sixteen  years  old  he  went  one 
day  to  Booneville,  fifteen  miles  away,  to  attend 
a  trial  in  court.  He  had  never  been  in  court  be- 
fore. He  listened  with  great  attention  to  all  that 
was  said.  When  the  lawyer  for  the  defense 
made  his  speech,  the  youth  was  so  full  of  delight 
that  he  could  not  contain  himself. 

He  arose  from  his  seat,  walked  across  the  court 
room,  and  shook  hands  with  the  lawyer.  "That 
was  the  best  speech  I  ever  heard,"  he  said. 

He  was  tall  and  very  slim ;  he  was  dressed  in 
a  jeans  coat  and  buckskin  trousers ;  his  feet 
were  bare.  It  must  have  been  a  strange  sight  to 
see  him  thus  complimenting  an  old  and  practiced 
lawyer. 

From  that  time,  one  ambition  seemed  to  fill 
his  mind.  He  wanted  to  be  a  lawyer  and  make 


THE  BOATMAN  2OI 

great  speeches  in  court.  He  walked  twelve  miles 
barefooted,  to  borrow  a  copy  of  the  laws  of  In- 
diana. Day  and  night  he  read  and  studied. 

"Some  day  I  shall  be  President  of  the  United 
States,"  he  said  to  some  of  his  young  friends. 
And  this  he  said  not  as  a  joke,  but  in  the  firm 
belief  that  it  would  prove  to  be  true. 

VI.  -  -  THE  BOATMAN 

One  of  Thomas  Lincoln's  friends  owned  a 
ferryboat  on  the  Ohio  River.  It  was  nothing 
but  a  small  rowboat,  and  would  carry  only  three 
or  four  people  at  a  time.  This  man  wanted  to 
employ  some  one  to  take  care  of  his  boat  and 
to  ferry  people  across  the  river. 

Thomas  Lincoln  was  in  need  of  money ;  and 
so  he  arranged  with  his  friend  for  Abraham  to  do 
this  work.  The  wages  of  the  young  man  were 
to  be  $2.50  a  week.  But  all  the  money  was  to  be 
his  father's. 

One  day  two  strangers  came  to  the  landing. 
They  wanted  to  take  passage  on  a  steamboat 
that  was  coming  down  the  river.  The  ferry-boy 
signaled  to  the  steamboat  and  it  stopped  in  mid- 


202          THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

stream.  Then  the  boy  rowed  out  with  the  two 
passengers,  and  they  were  taken  on  board. 

Just  as  he  was  turning  towards  the  shore  again, 
each  of  the  strangers  tossed  a  half-dollar  into  his 
boat.  He  picked  the  silver  up  and  looked  at  it. 
Ah,  how  rich  he  felt  !  He  had  never  had  so  much 
money  at  one  time.  And  he  had  gotten  all  for 
a  few  minutes'  labor  ! 

When  winter  came  on,  there  were  fewer  people 
who  wanted  to  cross  the  river.  So,  at  last,  the 
ferryboat  was  tied  up,  and  Abraham  Lincoln 
went  back  to  his  father's  home. 

He  was  now  nineteen  years  old.  He  was  very 
tall  —  nearly  six  feet  four  inches  in  height.  He 
was  as  strong  as  a  young  giant.  He  could  jump 
higher  and  farther,  and  he  could  run  faster,  than 
any  of  his  fellows  ;  and  there  was  no  one,  far  or 
near,  who  could  lay  him  on  his  back. 

Although  he  had  always  lived  in  a  community 
of  rude,  rough  people,  he  had  no  bad  habits.  He 
used  no  tobacco ;  he  did  not  drink  strong  liquor ; 
no  profane  word  ever  passed  his  lips. 

He  was  good-natured  at  all  times,  and  kind  to 
every  one. 


THE   BOATMAN  203 

During  that  winter,  Mr.  Gentry,  the  store- 
keeper in  the  village,  had  bought  a  good  deal  of 
Corn  and  pork.  He  intended,  in  the  spring,  to 
load  this  on  a  flatboat  and  send  it  down  the  river 
to  New  Orleans. 

In  looking  about  for  a  captain  to  take  charge 
of  the  boat,  he  happened  to  think  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  He  knew  that  he  could  trust  the  young 
man.  And  so  a  bargain  was  soon  made.  Abra- 
ham agreed  to  pilot  the  boat  to  New  Orleans 
and  to  market  the  produce  there  ;  and  Mr.  Gen- 
try was  to  pay  his  father  eight  dollars  and  a  half 
a  month  for  his  services. 

As  soon  as  the  ice  had  well  melted  from  the 
river,  the  voyage  was  begun.  Besides  Captain 
Lincoln  there  was  only  one  man  in  the  crew,  and 
that  was  a  son  of  Mr.  Gentry's. 

The  voyage  was  a  long  and  weary  one,  but  at 
last  the  two  boatmen  reached  the  great  southern 
city.  Here  they  saw  many  strange  things  of 
which  they  had  never  heard  before.  But  they 
soon  sold  their  cargo  and  boat,  and  then  returned 
home  on  a  steamboat. 

To  Abraham  Lincoln  the  world  was  now  very 


204          THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

different  from  what  it  had  seemed  before.  He 
longed  to  be  away  from  the  narrow  life  in  the 
woods  of  Spencer  county.  He  longed  to  be  doing 
something  for  himself  -  -  to  be  making  for  him- 
self a  fortune  and  a  name. 

But  then  he  remembered  his  mother's  teach- 
ings when  he  sat  on  her  knee  in  the  old 
Kentucky  home,  "Always  do  right."  He 
remembered  her  last  words,  "I  know  you  will 
be  kind  to  your  father." 

And  so  he  resolved  to  stay  with  his  father,  to 
work  for  him,  and  to  give  him  all  his  earnings 
until  he  was  twenty-one  years  old. 

VII. --THE  FIRST  YEARS  IN  ILLINOIS 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1830,  Thomas  Lincoln 
sold  his  farm  in  Indiana,  and  the  whole  family 
moved  to  Illinois.  The  household  goods  were 
put  in  a  wagon  drawn  by  four  yoke  of  oxen. 
The  kind  stepmother  and  her  daughters  rode 
also  in  the  wagon. 

Abraham  Lincoln,  with  a  long  whip  in  his  hand, 
trudged  through  the  mud  by  the  side  of  the  road 
and  guided  the  oxen.  Who  that  saw  him  thus 


THE   FIRST  YEARS   IN  ILLINOIS  205 

going  into  Illinois  would  have  dreamed   that  he 

would  in  time  become  that  state's  greatest  citizen  ? 

The  journey  was  a  long  and  hard  one  ;    but  in 

two   weeks    they    reached    Decatur,    where    they 

had  decided  to  make  their  new  home. 

. 
Abraham    Lincoln    was    now    over    twenty-one 

years  old.  He  was  his  own  man.  But  he  stayed 
with  his  father  that  spring.  He  helped  him 
fence  his  land  ;  he  helped  him  plant  his  corn. 

But  his  father  had  no  money  to  give  him. 
The  young  man's  clothing  was  all  worn  out,  and 
he  had  nothing  with  which  to  buy  any  more. 
What  should  he  do  ? 

Three  miles  from  his  father's  cabin  there  lived 
a  thrifty  woman,  whose  name  was  Nancy  Miller. 
Mrs.  Miller  owned  a  flock  of  sheep,  and  in  her 
house  there  were  a  spinning-wheel  and  a  loom 
that  were  always  busy.  And  so  you  must  know 
that  she  wove  a  great  deal  of  jeans  and  home- 
made cloth. 

Abraham  Lincoln  bargained  with  this  woman 
to  make  him  a  pair  of  trousers.  He  agreed  that 
for  each  yard  of  cloth  required,  he  would  split  for 
her  four  hundred  rails. 


206          THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

He  had  to  split  fourteen  hundred  rails  in  all ; 
but  he  worked  so  fast  that  he  had  finished  them 
before  the  trousers  were  ready. 

The  next  April  saw  young  Lincoln  piloting  an- 
other flatboat  down  the  Mississippi  to  New  Or- 
leans. His  companion  this  time  was  his  mother's 
relative,  John  Hanks.  This  time  he  stayed  longer 
in  New  Orleans,  and  he  saw  some  things  which 
he  had  barely  noticed  on  his  first  trip. 

He  saw  gangs  of  slaves  being  driven  through 
the  streets.  He  visited  the  slave-market,  and 
saw  women  and  girls  sold  to  the  highest  bidder 
like  so  many  cattle. 

The  young  man,  who  would  not  be  unkind  to 
any  living  being,  was  shocked  by  these  sights. 
"His  heart  bled;  he  was  mad,  thoughtful,  sad, 
and  depressed." 

He  said  to  John  Hanks,  "If  I  ever  get  a 
chance  to  hit  that  institution,  I'll  hit  it  hard, 
John." 

He  came  back  from  New  Orleans  in  July.  Mr. 
Offut,  the  owner  of  the  flatboat  which  he  had 
taken  down,  then  employed  him  to  act  as  clerk 
in  a  country  store  which  he  had  at  New  Salem. 


THE   BLACK  HAWK  WAR  207 

New  Salem  was  a  little  town  not  far  from 
Springfield. 

Young  Lincoln  was  a  good  salesman,  and  all 
the  customers  liked  him.  Mr.  Offut  declared 
that  the  young  man  knew  more  than  any  one  else 
in  the  United  States,  and  that  he  could  outrun 
and  outwrestle  any  man  in  the  county. 

But  in  the  spring  of  the  next  year  Mr.  Offut 
failed.  The  store  was  closed,  and  Abraham  Lin- 
coln was  out  of  employment  again. 

VIII. — THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR 

There  were  still  a  good  many  Indians  in  the 
West.  The  Sac  Indians  had  lately  sold  their 
lands  in  northern  Illinois  to  the  United  States. 
They  had  then  moved  across  the  Mississippi 
River,  to  other  lands  that  had  been  set  apart  for 
them. 

But  they  did  not  like  their  new  home.  At  last 
they  made  up  their  minds  to  go  back  to  their 
former  hunting-grounds.  They  were  led  by  a 
chief  whose  name  was  Black  Hawk ;  and  they 
began  by  killing  the  white  settlers  and  burning 
their  houses  and  crops. 


208          THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

This  was  in  the  spring  of  1832. 

The  whole  state  of  Illinois  was  in  alarm.  The 
governor  called  for  volunteers  to  help  the  United 
States  soldiers  drive  the  Indians  back. 

Abraham  Lincoln  enlisted.  His  company  elected 
him  captain. 

He  did  not  know  anything  about  military  tac- 
tics. He  did  not  know  how  to  give  orders  to  his 
men.  But  he  did  the  best  that  he  could,  and 
learned  a  great  deal  by  experience. 

His  company  marched  northward  and  west- 
ward until  they  came  to  the  Mississippi  River. 
But  they  did  not  meet  any  Indians,  and  so  there 
was  no  fighting. 

The  young  men  under  Captain  Lincoln  were 
rude  fellows  from  the  prairies  and  backwoods. 
They  were  rough  in  their  manners,  and  hard 
to  control.  But  they  had  very  high  respect  for 
their  captain. 

Perhaps  this  was  because  of  his  great  strength, 
and  his  skill  in  wrestling ;  for  he  could  put  the 
roughest  and  strongest  of  them  on  their  backs. 
Perhaps  it  was  because  he  was  good-natured  and 
kind,  and,  at  the  same  time,  very  firm  and  decisive. 


THE   BLACK  HAWK  WAR  209 

In  a  few  weeks  the  time  for  which  the  com- 
pany had  enlisted  came  to  an  end.  The  young 
men  were  tired  of  being  soldiers  ;  and  so  all,  ex- 
cept Captain  Lincoln  and  one  man,  were  glad  to 
hurry  home. 

But  Captain  Lincoln  never  gave  up  anything 
half  done.  He  enlisted  again.  This  time  he 
was  a  private  in  a  company  of  mounted 
rangers. 

The  main  camp  of  the  volunteers  and  soldiers 
was  on  the  banks  of  the  Rock  River,  in  northern 
Illinois.  , 

Here,  one  day,  Abraham  Lincoln  saw  a  young 
lieutenant  of  the  United  States  army,  whose 
name  was  Jefferson  Davis.  It  is  not  likely 
that  the  fine  young  officer  noticed  the  rough-clad 
ranger ;  but  they  were  to  know  more  of  each 
other  at  a  future  time. 

Three  weeks  after  that  the  war  was  at  an  end. 
The  Indians  had  been  beaten  in  a  battle,  and 
Black  Hawk  had  been  taken  prisoner. 

But  Abraham  Lincoln  had  not  been  in  any 
fight.  He  had  not  seen  any  Indians,  except 
peaceable  ones. 


210          THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

In  June  his  company  was  mustered  out,  and 
he  returned  home  to  New  Salem. 

He  was  then  twenty-three  years  old. 

IX.  —  IN  THE  LEGISLATURE 

When  Abraham  Lincoln  came  back  to  New 
Salem  it  was  nearly  time  for  the  state  election. 
The  people  of  the  town  and  neighborhood  wanted 
to  send  him  to  the  legislature,  and  he  agreed  to 
be  a  candidate. 

It  was  at  Pappsville,  twelve  miles  from  Spring- 
field, that  he  made  his  first  campaign  speech. 

He  said:    "Gentlemen  and  fellow-citizens  — 

"I  presume  you  all  know  who  I  am. 

"I  am  humble  Abraham  Lincoln.  I  have  been 
solicited  by  my  friends  to  become  a  candidate 
for  the  legislature. 

"My  politics  are  short  and  sweet. 

"  I  am  in  favor  of  a  national  bank  ;  am  in  favor 
of  the  internal  improvement  system,  and  a  high 
protective  tariff. 

'These  are  my  sentiments  and  political  prin- 
ciples. If  elected,  I  shall  be  thankful ;  if  not,  it 
will  be  all  the  same." 


IN   THE  LEGISLATURE  21 1 

He  was  a  tall,  gawky,  rough-looking  fellow. 
He  was  dressed  in  a  coarse  suit  of  homespun, 
much  the  worse  for  wear. 

A  few  days  after  that,  he  made  a  longer  and 
better  speech  at  Springfield. 

But  he  was  not  elected. 

About  this  time  a  worthless  fellow,  whose 
name  was  Berry,  persuaded  Mr.  Lincoln  to  help 
him  buy  a  store  in  New  Salem.  Mr.  Lincoln 
had  no  money,  but  he  gave  his  notes  for  the 
value  of  half  the  goods. 

The  venture  was  not  a  profitable  one.  In  a 
few  months  the  store  was  sold  ;  but  Abraham 
did  not  receive  a  dollar  for  it.  It  was  six  years 
before  he  was  able  to  pay  off  the  notes  which  he 
had  given. 

During  all  this  time  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  give 
up  the  idea  of  being  a  lawyer.  He  bought  a 
second-hand  copy  of  Blackstone's  Commentaries 
at  auction.  He  studied  it  so  diligently  that  in 
a  few  weeks  he  had  mastered  the  whole  of  it. 

He  bought  an  old  form-book,  and  began  to 
draw  up  contracts,  deeds,  and  all  kinds  of  legal 
papers. 


212          THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

He  would  often  walk  to  Springfield,  fourteen 
miles  away,  to  borrow  a  book ;  and  he  would 
master  thirty  or  forty  pages  of  it  while  returning 
home. 

Soon  he  began  to  practice  in  a  small  way  be- 
fore justices  of  the  peace  and  country  juries. 
He  was  appointed  postmaster  at  New  Salem,  but 
so  little  mail  came  to  the  place  that  the  office 
was  soon  discontinued. 

He  was  nearly  twenty-five  years  old.  But, 
with  all  his  industry,  he  could  hardly  earn  money 
enough  to  pay  for  his  board  and  clothing. 

He  had  learned  a  little  about  surveying  while 
living  in  Indiana.  He  now  took  up  the  study 
again,  and  was  soon  appointed  deputy  surveyor 
of  Sangamon  county. 

He  was  very  skillful  as  a  surveyor.  Although 
his  chain  was  only  a  grapevine,  he  was  very  ac- 
curate and  never  made  mistakes. 

The  next  year  he  was  again  a  candidate  for 
the  legislature.  This  time  the  people  were  ready 
to  vote  for  him,  and  he  was  elected.  It  was  no 
small  thing  for  so  young  a  man  to  be  chosen  to 
help  make  the  laws  of  his  state. 


IN  THE  LEGISLATURE  213 

No  man  ever  had  fewer  advantages  than 
Abraham  Lincoln.  As  a  boy,  he  was  the  poorest 
of  the  poor.  No  rich  friend  held  out  a  helping 
hand.  But  see  what  he  had  already  accom- 
plished by  pluck,  perseverance,  and  honesty  ! 

He  had  not  had  access  to  many  books,  but  he 
knew  books  better  than  most  men  of  his  age. 
He  knew  the  Bible  by  heart ;  he  was  familiar 
with  Shakespeare ;  he  could  repeat  nearly  all  the 
poems  of  Burns ;  he  knew  much  about  physics 
and  mechanics ;  he  had  mastered  the  elements 
of  law. 

He  was  very  awkward  and  far  from  handsome, 
but  he  was  so  modest,  so  unselfish  and  kind,  that 
every  one  who  knew  him  liked  him.  He  was  a 
true  gentleman  —  a  gentleman  at  heart,  if  not  in 
outside  polish. 

And  so,  as  I  have  already  said,  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  was  elected  to  the 
state  legislature.  He  served  the  people  so  well 
that  when  his  term  closed,  two  years  later,  they 
sent  him  back  for  another  term. 

The  capital  of  Illinois  had,  up  to  this  time, 
been  at  Vandalia.  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  friends 


214          THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

now  succeeded  in  having  a  law  passed  to  re- 
move it  to  Springfield.  Springfield  was  nearer 
to  the  center  of  the  state  ;  it  was  more  conven- 
ient to  everybody,  and  had  other  advantages 
which  Vandalia  did  not  have. 

The  people  of  Springfield  were  so  delighted 
that  they  urged  Mr.  Lincoln  to  come  there  and 
practice  law.  An  older  lawyer,  whose  name  was 
John  T.  Stuart,  and  who  had  a  good  practice, 
offered  to  take  him  in  partnership  with  him. 

And  so,  in  1837,  Abraham  Lincoln  left  New 
Salem  and  removed  to  Springfield.  He  did  not 
have  much  to  move.  All  the  goods  that  he  had 
in  the  world  were  a  few  clothes,  which  he  car- 
ried in  a  pair  of  saddlebags,  and  two  or  three 
law  books.  He  had  no  money,  and  he  rode  into 
Springfield  on  a  borrowed  horse. 

He  was  then  twenty-eight  years  old. 

From  that  time  on,  Springfield  was  his  home. 

X. --POLITICS  AND  MARRIAGE 

The  next  year  after  his  removal  to  Springfield, 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected  to  the  legislature  for  the 
third  time. 


POLITICS  AND  MARRIAGE  215 

There  were  then,  in  this  country,  two  great 
political  parties,  the  Democrats  and  the  Whigs. 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  Whig,  and  he  soon  became 
the  leader  of  his  party  in  the  state.  But  the 
Whigs  were  not  so  strong  as  the  Democrats. 

The  legislature  was  in  session  only  a  few  weeks 
each  year ;  and  so  Mr.  Lincoln  could  devote  ah1 
the  rest  of  the  time  to  the  practice  of  law.  There 
were  many  able  lawyers  in  Illinois ;  but  Abe 
Lincoln  of  Springfield  soon  made  himself  known 
among  the  best  of  them. 

In  1840,  he  was  again  elected  to  the  legislature. 
This  was  the  year  in  which  General  William 
H.  Harrison  was  elected  President  of  the  United 
States.  General  Harrison  was  a  Whig ;  and 
Mr.  Lincoln's  name  was  on  the  Whig  ticket  as 
a  candidate  for  presidential  elector  in  his  state. 

The  presidential  campaign  was  one  of  the 
most  exciting  that  had  ever  been  known.  It 
was  called  the  "log  cabin"  campaign,  because 
General  Harrison  had  lived  in  a  log  cabin,  and 
his  opponents  had  sneered  at  his  poverty. 

In  the  East  as  well  as  in  the  West,  the  excite- 
ment was  very  great.  In  every  city  and  town 


2l6          THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

and  village,  wherever  there  was  a  political  meet- 
ing, a  log  cabin  was  seen.  On  one  side  of  the 
low  door  hung  a  long-handled  gourd ;  on  the 
other  side,  a  coon-skin  was  nailed  to  the  logs ; 
the  blue  smoke  curled  up  from  the  top  of  the 
stick-and-clay  chimney. 

You  may  believe  that  Abraham  Lincoln  went 
into  this  campaign  with  all  his  heart.  He  trav- 
eled over  a  part  of  the  state,  making  stump- 
speeches  for  his  party. 

One  of  his  ablest  opponents  was  a  young  law- 
yer, not  quite  his'  own  age,  whose  name  was 
Stephen  A.  Douglas.  In  many  places,  during 
this  campaign,  Lincoln  and  Douglas  met  in  pub- 
lic debate  upon  the  questions  of  the  day.  And 
both  of  them  were  so  shrewd,  so  well  informed, 
and  so  eloquent,  that  those  who  heard  them  were 
unable  to  decide  which  was  the  greater  of  the 
two. 

General  Harrison  was  elected,  but  not  through 
the  help  of  Mr.  Lincoln  ;  for  the  vote  of  Illinois 
that  year  was  for  the  Democratic  candidate. 

In  1842,  when  he  was  thirty-three  years  old, 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  married  to  Miss  Mary  Todd,  a 


218          THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

young  lady  from  Kentucky,  who  had  lately  come 
to  Springfield  on  a  visit. 

For  some  time  after  their  marriage,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Lincoln  lived  in  a  hotel  called  the  "Globe 
Tavern,"  paying  four  dollars  a  week  for  rooms 
and  board.  But,  in  1844,  Mr.  Lincoln  bought  a 
small,  but  comfortable  frame  house,  and  in  this 
they  lived  until  they  went  to  the  White  House, 
seventeen  years  later. 

Although  he  had  been  successful  as  a  young 
lawyer,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  still  a  poor  man.  But 
Mrs.  Lincoln  said:  "I  would  rather  have  a  good 
man,  a  man  of  mind,  with  bright  prospects  for  suc- 
cess and  power  and  fame,  than  marry  one  with  all 
the  horses  and  houses  and  gold  in  the  world." 

XI.  —  CONGRESSMAN  AND  LAWYER 

In  1846,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  again  elected  to  the 
legislature. 

In  the  following  year  the  people  of  his  district 
chose  him  to  be  their  representative  in  Congress. 
He  took  his  seat  in  December.  He  was  then 
thirty-nine  years  old.  He  was  the  only  Whig 
from  Illinois. 


CONGRESSMAN  AND  LAWYER  219 

There  were  many  famous  men  in  Congress  at 
that  time.  Mr.  Lincoln's  lifelong  rival,  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  was  one  of  the  senators  from  Illinois. 
He  had  already  served  a  term  or  two  in  the  house 
of  representatives.  J 

Daniel  Webster  was  also  in  the  senate  ;  and  so 
was  John  C.  Calhoun  ;  and  so  was  Jefferson  Davis. 

Mr.  Lincoln  took  an  active  interest  in  all  the 
subjects  that  came  before  Congress.  He  made 
many  speeches.  But,  perhaps,  the  most  impor- 
tant thing  that  he  did  at  this  time  was  to  propose 
a  bill  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  in  the 
city  of  Washington. 

He  believed  that  slavery  was  unjust  to  the 
slave  and  harmful  to  the  nation.  He  wanted  to 
do  what  he  could  to  keep  it  from  becoming  a 
still  greater  evil.  But  the  bill  was  opposed  so 
strongly  that  it  was  not  even  voted  upon. 

After  the  close  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  term  in  Con- 
gress, he  hoped  that  President  Taylor,  who  was 
a  Whig,  might  appoint  him  to  a  good  office. 
But  in  this  he  was  disappointed. 

And  so,  in  1849,  he  returned  to  his  home  in  Spring- 
field, and  again  settled  down  to  the  practice  of  law. 


220          THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

He  was  then  forty  years  old.  Considering  the 
poverty  of  his  youth,  he  had  done  great  things 
for  himself.  But  he  had  not  done  much  for  his 
country.  Outside  of  his  own  state  his  name  was 
still  unknown. 

His  life  for  the  next  few  years  was  like  that  of 
any  other  successful  lawyer  in  the  newly-settled 
West.  He  had  a  large  practice,  but  his  fees 
were  very  small.  His  income  from  his  profession 
was  seldom  more  than  $2,000  a  year. 

His  habits  were  very  simple.  He  lived  com- 
fortably and  respectably.  In  his  modest  little 
home  there  was  an  air  of  order  and  refinement, 
but  no  show  of  luxury. 

No  matter  where  he  might  go,  Mr.  Lincoln 
would  have  been  known  as  a  Western  man.  He 
was.  six  feet  four  inches  in  height.  His  face  was 
very  homely,  but  very  kind. 

He  was  cordial  and  friendly  in  his  manners. 
There  was  something  about  him  which  made 
everybody  feel  that  he  was  a  sincere,  truthful, 
upright  man.  He  was  known  among  his  neigh- 
bors as  "Honest  Abe  Lincoln.'1 


THE  QUESTION  OF  SLAVERY  221 

XII. --THE  QUESTION  OF  SLAVERY 

The  great  subject  before  the  country  at  this 
time  was  slavery.  It  had  been  the  cause  of  trouble 
for  many  years. 

In  the  early  settlement  of  the  American  colo- 
nies, slavery  had  been  introduced  through  the  in- 
fluence of  the  English  government.  The  first 
slaves  had  been  brought  to  Virginia  nearly  240 
years  before  the  time  of  which  I  am  telling  you. 

Many  people  saw  from  the  beginning  that  it 
was  an  evil  which  would  at  some  distant  day 
bring  disaster  upon  the  country.  In  1772,  the 
people  of  Virginia  petitioned  the  King  of  Eng- 
land to  put  a  stop  to  the  bringing  of  slaves  from 
Africa  into  that  colony.  But  the  petition  was 
rejected  ;  and  the  King  forbade  them  to  speak  of 
the  matter  any  more. 

Washington,  Jefferson,  and  other  founders  of 
our  nation  looked  upon  slavery  as  an  evil.  They 
hoped  that  the  time  might  come  when  it  would 
be  done  away  with ;  for  they  knew  that  the 
country  would  prosper  better  without  it. 

At  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  slavery  was  per- 


222          THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

mitted  in  all  the  states.  But  it  was  gradually 
abolished,  first  in  Pennsylvania  and  then  in  the 
New  England  states,  and  afterwards  in  New 
York. 

In  1787,  a  law  was  passed  by  Congress  declar- 
ing that  there  should  be  no  slavery  in  the  terri- 
tory northwest  of  the  river  Ohio.  This  was  the 
territory  from  which  the  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin  were  formed  ; 
and  so,  of  course,  these  states  were  free  states 
from  the  beginning. 

The  great  industry  of  the  South  was  cotton- 
raising.  The  people  of  the  Southern  states 
claimed  that  slavery  was  necessary,  because  only 
negro  slaves  could  do  the  work  required  on  the 
big  cotton  plantations.  Kentucky,  Tennessee, 
Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  Louisiana  were  admit- 
ted, one  by  one,  into  the  Union  ;  and  all  were 
slave  states. 

In  1821,  Missouri  applied  for  admission  into  the 
Union.  The  South  wanted  slavery  in  this  state 
also,  but  the  North  objected.  There  were  many 
hot  debates  in  Congress  over  this  question.  At 
last,  through  the  influence  of  Henry  Clay,  the 


THE  QUESTION  OF  SLAVERY  223 

dispute  was  settled  by  what  has  since  been  known 
as  the  Missouri  Compromise. 

The  Missouri  Compromise  provided  that  Mis- 
souri should  be  a  slave  state  ;  this  was  to  satisfy 
the  South.  On  the  other  hand,  it  declared  that 
all  the  western  territory  north  of  the  line  which 
formed  the  southern  boundary  of  Missouri,  should 
forever  be  free ;  this  was  to  appease  the  North. 

But  the  cotton  planters  of  the  South  grew  more 
wealthy  by  the  labor  of  their  slaves.  More  territory 
was  needed  for  the  extension  of  slavery.  Texas 
joined  the  United  States  and  became  a  slave  state. 

Then  followed  a  war  with  Mexico ;  and  Cali- 
fornia, New  Mexico,  and  Utah  were  taken  from 
that  country.  Should  slavery  be  allowed  in  these 
new  territories  also  ? 

At  this  time  a  new  political  party  was  formed. 
It  was  called  the  "Free  Soil  Party,"  and  the 
principle  for  which  it  contended  was  this:  "No 
more  slave  states  and  no  slave  territory." 

This  party  was  not  very  strong  at  first,  but 
soon  large  numbers  of  Whigs  and  many  northern 
Democrats,  who  did  not  believe  in  the  extension 
of  slavery,  began  to  join  it. 


224          THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Although  the  Whig  party  refused  to  take  any 
position  against  the  extension  of  slavery,  there 
were  many  anti-slavery  Whigs  who  still  remained 
with  it  and  voted  the  Whig  ticket  —  and  one  of 
these  men  was  Abraham  Lincoln. 

The  contest  between  freedom  and  slavery  be- 
came more  fierce  every  day.  At  last  another 
compromise  was  proposed  by  Henry  Clay. 

This  compromise  provided  that  California 
should  be  admitted  as  a  free  state ;  that  slavery 
should  not  be  prohibited  in  New  Mexico  and 
Utah ;  that  there  should  be  no  more  markets  for 
slaves  in  the  District  of  Columbia  ;  and  that  a 
new  and  very  strict  fugitive-slave  law  should  be 
passed. 

This  compromise  is  called  the  "Compromise 
of  1850."  It  was  in  support  of  these  measures 
that  Daniel  Webster  made  his  last  great  speech. 

It  was  hoped  by  Webster  and  Clay  that  the 
Compromise  of  1850  would  put  an  end  to  the 
agitation  about  slavery.  "Now  we  shall  have 
peace,"  they  said.  But  the  agitation  became 
stronger  and  stronger,  and  peace  seemed  farther 
away  than  ever  before. 


LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS  225 

In  1854,  a  bill  was  passed  by  Congress  to  or- 
ganize the  territories  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska. 
This  bill  provided  that  the  Missouri  Compromise 
should  be  repealed,  and  that  the  question  of 
slavery  in  these  territories  should  be  decided  by 
the  people  living  in  them. 

The  bill  was  passed  through  the  influence  of 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  of  Illinois.  There  was  now 
no  bar  to  the  extension  of  slavery  into  any  of 
the  territories  save  that  of  public  opinion. 

The  excitement  all  over  •  the  North  was  very 
great.  In  Kansas  there  was  actual  war  between 
those  who  favored  slavery  and  those  who  op- 
posed it.  Thinking  men  in  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try saw  that  a  great  crisis  was  at  hand. 

XIII.  --  LINCOLN  AND  DOUGLAS 

It  was  then  that  Abraham  Lincoln  came  for- 
ward as  the  champion  of  freedom. 

Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  a  candidate  for  re- 
election to  the  senate,  and  he  found  it  necessary 
to  defend  himself  before  the  people  of  his  state 
for  the  part  he  had  taken  in  repealing  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise.  He  went  from  one  city  to 


226          THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

another,  making  speeches ;  and  at  each  place 
Abraham  Lincoln  met  him  in  joint  debate. 

"I  do  not  care  whether  slavery  is  voted  into 
or  out  of  the  territories,"  said  Mr.  Douglas. 
"The  question  of  slavery  is  one  of  climate. 
Wherever  it  is  to  the  interest  of  the  inhabitants 
of  a  territory  to  have  slave  property,  there  a 
slave  law  will  be  enacted." 

But  Mr.  Lincoln  replied,  "The  men  who  signed 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  said  that  all 
men  are  created  equal,  and  are  endowed  by  their 
Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights  —  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  ...  I 
beseech  you,  do  not  destroy  that  immortal  em- 
blem of  humanity,  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence." 

At  last,  Mr.  Douglas  felt  that  he  was  beaten. 
He  proposed  that  both  should  go  home,  and  that 
there  should  be  no  more  joint  discussions.  Mr. 
Lincoln  agreed  to  this ;  but  the  words  which 
he  had  spoken  sank  deep  into  the  hearts  of  those 
who  heard  them. 

The  speeches  of  Lincoln  and  Douglas  were 
printed  in  a  book.  People  in  all  parts  of  the 


LINCOLN  AND   DOUGLAS  227 

country  read  them.  They  had  heard  much  about 
Stephen  A.  Douglas.  He  was  called  "The  Little 
Giant."  He  had  long  been  famous  among  the 
politicians  of  the  country.  It  was  believed  that 
he  would  be  the  next  President  of  the  United 
States. 

But  who  was  this  man  Lincoln,  who  had  so 
bravely  vanquished  the  Little  Giant  ?  He  was 
called  "Honest  Abe."  There  were  few  people 
outside  of  his  state  who  had  ever  heard  of  him 
before. 

Mr.  Douglas  returned  to  his  seat  in  the  United 
States  senate.  Mr.  Lincoln  became  the  acknowl- 
edged leader  of  the  forces  opposed  to  the  exten- 
sion of  slavery. 

In  May,  1856,  a  convention  of  the  people  of 
Illinois  was  held  in  Bloomington,  Illinois.  It 
met  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a  new  political 
party,  the  chief  object  and  aim  of  which  should 
be  to  oppose  the  extension  of  slavery  into  the 
territories. 

Mr.  Lincoln  made  a  speech  to  the  members  of 
this  convention.  It  was  one  of  the  greatest 
speeches  ever  heard  in  this  country.  "Again 


228  THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

and  again,  during  the  delivery,  the  audience 
sprang  to  their  feet,  and,  by  long-continued 
cheers,  expressed  how  deeply  the  speaker  had 
roused  them." 

And  so  the  new  party  was  organized.  It  was 
composed  of  the  men  who  had  formed  the  old 
Free  Soil  Party,  together  with  such  Whigs  and 
Democrats  as  were  opposed  to  the  further  growth 
of  the  slave  power.  But  the  greater  number  of 
its  members  were  Whigs.  This  new  party  was 
called  the  Republican  Party. 

In  June,  the  Republican  Party  held  a  national 
convention  at  Philadelphia,  and  nominated  John 
C.  Fremont  for  President.  But  the  party  was 
not  strong  enough  to  carry  the  election  that  year. 

In  that  same  month  the  Democrats  held  a  con- 
vention at  Cincinnati.  Every  effort  was  made 
to  nominate  Stephen  A.  Douglas  for  President. 
But  he  was  beaten  in  his  own  party,  on  account 
of  the  action  which  he  had  taken  in  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise. 

James  Buchanan  was  nominated  in  his  stead, 
and,  in  November,  was  elected. 

And  so  the  conflict  went  on. 


PRESIDENT  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES         229 

In  the  year  1858  there  was  another  series  of 
joint  debates  between  Lincoln  and  Douglas. 
Both  were  candidates  for  the  United  States  sen- 
ate. Their  speeches  were  among  the  most  re- 
markable ever  delivered  in  any  country. 

Lincoln  spoke  for  liberty  and  justice.  Doug- 
las's speeches  were  full  of  fire  and  patriotism. 
He  hoped  to  be  elected  President  in  1860.  In  the 
end,  it  was  generally  acknowledged  that  Lincoln 
had  made  the  best  arguments.  But  Douglas  was 
reelected  to  the  senate. 

XIV. -- PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

In  1860  there  were  four  candidates  for  the 
presidency. 

The  great  Democratic  Party  was  divided  into 
two  branches.  One  branch  nominated  Stephen 
A.  Douglas.  The  other  branch,  which  included 
the  larger  number  of  the  slave-owners  of  the 
South,  nominated  John  C.  Breckinridge,  of 
Kentucky. 

The  remnant  of  the  old  Whig  Party,  now 
called  the  "Union  Party,"  nominated  John  Bell, 
of  Tennessee. 


230          THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

The  Republican  Party  nominated  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

In  November  came  the  election,  and  a  majority 
of  all  the  electors  chosen  were  for  Lincoln. 

The  people  of  the  cotton-growing  states  be- 
lieved that,  by  this  election,  the  Northern  people 
intended  to  deprive  them  of  their  rights.  They 
believed  that  the  anti-slavery  people  intended  to 
do  much  more  than  prevent  the  extension  of 
slavery.  They  believed  that  the  abolitionists 
were  bent  upon  passing  laws  to  deprive  them  of 
their  slaves. 

Wild  rumors  were  circulated  concerning  the 
designs  which  the  "Black  Republicans,"  as  they 
were  called,  had  formed  for  their  coercion  and 
oppression.  They  declared  that  they  would  never 
submit. 

And  so,  in  December,  the  people  of  South  Car- 
olina met  in  convention,  and  declared  that  that 
state  had  seceded  from  the  Union --that  they, 
would  no  longer  be  citizens  of  the  United  States. 
One  by  one,  six  other  states  followed  ;  and  they 
united  to  form  a  new  government,  called  the 
Confederate  States  of  America. 


PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES         231 

It  had  long  been  held  by  the  men  of  the  South 
that  a  state  had  the  right  to  withdraw  from  the 
Union  at  any  time.  This  was  called  the  doctrine 
of  States'  Rights. 

The  Confederate  States  at  once  chose  Jeffer- 
son Davis  for  their  President,  and  declared  them- 
selves free  and  independent. 

In  February,  Mr.  Lincoln  went  to  Washington 
to  be  inaugurated.  His  enemies  openly  boasted 
that  he  should  never  reach  that  city  alive  ;  and 
a  plot  was  formed  to  kill  him  on  his  passage 
through  Baltimore.  But  he  took  an  earlier  train 
than  the  one  appointed,  and  arrived  at  the  capital 
in  safety. 

On  the  4th  of  March  he  was  inaugurated.  In 
his  address  at  that  time  he  said  :  "In  your  hands, 
my  dissatisfied  countrymen,  and  not  in  mine, 
is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war.  Your  gov- 
ernment will  not  assail  you.  You  can  have  no 
conflict  without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors. 
You  have  no  oath  registered  in  heaven  to  destroy 
the  government ;  while  I  shall  have  the  most 
solemn  one  to  protect  and  defend  it." 

The    Confederate    States    demanded    that    the 


232          THE  STORY  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

government  should  give  up  all  the  forts,  arsenals, 
and  public  property  within  their  limits.  This, 
President  Lincoln  refused  to  do.  He  said  that 
he  could  not  admit  that  these  states  had  with- 
drawn from  the  Union,  or  that  they  could  with- 
draw without  the  consent  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  given  in  a  national  convention. 

And  so,  in  April,  the  Confederate  guns  were 
turned  upon  Fort  Sumter  in  Charleston  harbor, 
and  the  war  was  begun.  President  Lincoln 
issued  a  call  for  75,000  men  to  serve  in  the  army 
for  three  months  ;  and  both  parties  prepared  for 
the  great  contest. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  give  a  history  of  that  ter- 
rible war  of  four  years.  The  question  of  slavery 
was  now  a  secondary  one.  The  men  of  one  party 
were  determined,  at  whatever  hazard,  to  preserve 
the  Union.  The  men  of  the  other  party  fought  to 
defend  their  doctrine  of  States'  Rights,  and  to 
set  up  an  independent  government  of  their  own. 

President  Lincoln  was  urged  to  use  his  power 
and  declare  all  the  slaves  free.  He  answered  : 

"My  paramount  object  is  to  save  the  Union, 
and  not  either  to  save  or  destroy  slavery. 


THE   END  OF  A  GREAT  LIFE  233 

"If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing 
any  slave,  I  would  do  it.  If  I  could  save  it  by 
freeing  all  the  slaves,  I  would  do  it.  If  I  could 
save  it  by  freeing  some  and  leaving  others  alone, 
I  would  also  do  that." 

At  last,  however,  when  he  saw  that  the  success 
of  the  Union  arms  depended  upon  his  freeing 
the  slaves,  he  decided  to  do  so.  On  the  ist  of 
January,  1863,  he  issued  a  proclamation  declaring 
that  the  slaves,  in  all  the  states  or  parts  of  states 
then  in  rebellion,  should  be  free.  More  than  three 
millions  of  colored  people  were  given  their  freedom. 

But  the  war  still  went  on.  It  reached  a  turn- 
ing point,  however,  at  the  battle  of  Gettysburg, 
in  July,  that  same  year.  From  that  time  the 
cause  of  the  Confederate  States  was  on  the  wane. 
Little  by  little  the  patriots,  who  were  struggling 
for  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  prevailed. 

XV.  -  -  THE  END  OF  A  GREAT  LIFE 

At  the  close  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  first  term,  he  was 
again  elected  President  of  the  United  States. 
The  war  was  still  going  on,  but  the  Union  arms 
were  now  everywhere  victorious. 


234          THE   STORY  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

His  second  inaugural  address  was  very  short. 
He  did  not  boast  of  any  of  his  achievements ; 
he  did  not  rejoice  over  the  defeat  of  his  enemies. 
But  he  said  : 

"With  malice  toward  none;  with  charity  for 
all ;  with  firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to 
see  the  right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work 
we  are  in  ;  to  bind  up  the  nation's  wounds  ;  to 
care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle, 
and  for  his  widow  and  his  orphan  —  to  do  all 
which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  last- 
ing peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all  nations." 

Five  weeks  after  that,  on  the  9th  of  April, 
1865,  the  Confederate  army  surrendered,  and  the 
war  was  at  an  end. 

Abraham  Lincoln's  work  was  done. 

The  I4th  of  April  was  Good  Friday.  On  the 
evening  of  that  day,  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  Mrs.  Lin- 
coln and  two  or  three  friends,  visited  Ford's 
Theater  in  Washington. 

At  a  few  minutes  past  10  o'clock,  an  actor 
whose  name  was  John  Wilkes  Booth,  came  into 
the  box  where  Mr.  Lincoln  sat.  No  one  saw 
him  enter.  He  pointed  a  pistol  at  the  President's 


THE   END  OF  A  GREAT  LIFE  235 

head,  and  fired.  He  leaped  down  upon  the  stage, 
shouting  "  Sic  semper  tyrannis !  The  South  is 
avenged  !"  Then  he  ran  behind  the  scenes  and 
out  by  the  stage  door. 

The   President   fell   forward.     His   eyes  closed. 
He  neither  saw,  nor  heard,  nor  felt  anything  that 
was  taking  place.     Kind  arms  carried  him  to  a' 
private  house  not  far  away. 

At  twenty  minutes  past  seven  o'clock  the  next 
morning,  those  who  watched  beside  him  gave 
out  the  mournful  news  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  dead. 

He  was  fifty-six  years  old. 

The  whole  nation  wept  for  him.  In  the  South 
as  well  as  in  the  North,  the  people  bowed  them- 
selves in  grief.  Heartfelt  tributes  of  sorrow  came 
from  other  lands  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  Never, 
before  nor  since,  has  there  been  such  universal 
mourning. 

Such  is  the  story  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  In  the 
history  of  the  world,  there  is  no  story  more  full  of 
lessons  of  perseverance,  of  patience,  of  honor,  of  true 
nobility  of  purpose.  Among  the  great  men  of  all 
time,  there  has  been  no  one  more  truly  great  than  he. 


